advocacy & Action Items
UPDATE January 2nd, 2024
The city has been incredibly responsive to this request. Erin Cuddihy, a traffic engineer from the City of Ithaca has been hard at work on trying to bring improvements to Floral Avenue. She has worked with a consulting firm to develop a plan for improvements that would include a multi-use path on the east side of the road, a complete sidewalk on the west side, along with raised crosswalks between the two.
Erin is now applying for a grant that would fund the project. The money would come from a federal transportation alternatives/carbon-reduction grant, but the city has to agree to contribute a smaller amount for the application to be successful.
Here is where you can help!
There are two ways you can help with this endeavor:
1. Write a letter of support for the project that will go to Erin Cuddihy that she will include in her grant application, as proof of support. Attached is a template that you can copy and paste to modify as you wish. These letters should be sent to ecuddihy@cityofithaca.org by January 5 so that she has time to get them into the application.
2. Show our support for this project at the January 3rd Common Council meeting. Erin needs Common Council to sign off on her grant application at the January 3rd meeting, before she submits it. Common Council has a lot of new members and this will be their very first meeting. It would be great to make it clear that there is a lot of support for this project.
Folks can participate in the meeting in one of three ways:
Attend in person at City Hall at 6:00 PM on January 3. Public comments occur as soon as the meeting is called to order and each person has three minutes to speak.
Attend remotely via this link, where under the Register to Speak Remotely category a link appears at 9 AM on the day of a meeting (January 3rd) where you can register to speak. Public comments occur as soon as the meeting is called to order and each person has three minutes to speak.
Submit your written comments (it could be the same language as the letter in item 1 above) to Council@CityofIthaca.org.
Please share with anyone else you think might be interested!
Thank you!!
Letter Template:
SAMPLE LETTER – FOR TOWN RESIDENTS
Date
Ms. Erin Cuddihy, P.E.
Transportation Engineer
City of Ithaca Department of Public Works
108 East Green Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Dear Erin,
I’m pleased to submit this letter of support for the City of Ithaca’s Floral Avenue Multimodal Design and Construction project, and the related Transportation Alternatives Program/Carbon Reduction Program (TAP/CRP) application. I am excited that the City is doing this project in response to the widely circulated petition from neighbors requesting safety improvements to
Floral Avenue.
The plan which includes sidewalk improvements, a place for people to bike, better crosswalks, and traffic calming, will make Floral Ave. a better place to live and travel. I live nearby in the Town of Ithaca, and I look forward to being able to walk/bike safely to Downtown Ithaca, to shopping, to the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, etc.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
December 30th, 2023
Hi neighbors and petition-signers!
Last year, a couple of neighbors wrote and circulated a petition requesting that safety features and/or traffic-calming measures be added to Floral Avenue, which has become a busy road that is ill-equipped for its current traffic volume and speed. The petition now has over 540 signatures, as well as thoughtful comments of support from concerned residents, pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers of the road.
Bike Walk Tompkins educates and advocates on issues and projects related to walking, biking and rolling within Tompkins County, with the occasional push for key state or federal action items. We also share action alerts and updates from organizations like the New York Bicycling Coalition, the League of American Bicyclists and America Walks. For more information on how to get involved with our advocacy efforts, sign up for our email alerts on our website by going to “Get Involved/E-news Signup” and clicking the box for Advocacy, or contact us at hello@bikewalktompkins.org.
SAFE STREETS NYS (spring/summer 2023). Join with us and safe streets advocates from around the state in calling on our state lawmakers to make streets safer for walkers, bikers and other vulnerable road users by supporting the 2023 Safe Streets Act, a package of 6 state bills that help municipalities redesign streets for safety to protect all road users, address the speeding rampant on our streets, make our vehicles safer and provide support and more legal rights to those personally impacted by crashes. Click the link to see the bills and sign the petition.
CAYUGA WATERFRONT REVITALIZATION/RT. 13 URBAN BLVD PROJECT (spring/summer 2023). The City of Ithaca is inviting public input on a plan to redesign Rt. 13 — between Fall Creek to the north, to the Meadow/Fulton split of Route 13 to the south — to be more walkable and bike able. To learn more about the project and weigh in, visit the project website.
REPORT POTHOLES & OTHER UNSAFE ROAD CONDITIONS (spring 2023). Bike Walk Tompkins has been fielding stories of treacherous road and sidewalk conditions. Though we are not the organization that will actually go and fill potholes, we are here to serve as a microphone to amplify our community's needs. We are currently compiling a list of problematic and dangerous road and sidewalk locations in the City and Town of Ithaca. With this list, we plan on presenting a compelling advocacy push to repair our streets. Click here to submit your stories, photos, etc: https://forms.gle/zyZxH8rWmWvGYFKA6.
SNOW-FREE CROSSWALKS & SIDEWALKS in Ithaca (late winter/early spring 2023). The Coalition for Snow-free Crosswalks & Sidewalks, which includes BWT, FLIC, COFA and Eric Lerner's Pedestrian Snow Project, invites you to follow their Facebook page Ithaca's Snowy Crosswalks and Sidewalks and to share photos and descriptions of icy/snow crosswalks and sidewalks, saying:
”City residents and those who work, shop and otherwise spend time in Ithaca can share your photos and descriptions of unplowed crosswalk edges and uncleared sidewalks so that together, we can help build pressure on Ithaca's city government to address this situation.
And please let us know if you fall or are injured while trying to get through snow and ice, particularly at crosswalks. You can…
-Post your photo and description to this Facebook page, Ithaca’s Snowy Crosswalks and Sidewalks
OR
-Email your photo and description to us at rashke@fliconline.org
Let's make the City of Ithaca decision makers act by bringing crosswalk and sidewalk user experiences to light.”
5 ACTION STEPS FOR A MORE WALKABLE, BIKE-ABLE CITY OF ITHACA (fall 2022).Bike Walk Tompkins sent City Council and the Mayor a 5-point action agenda, including safe roadway infrastructure for bicycling, lowering the speed limit to 25 mph, bringing back bikeshare, funding a snow-free sidewalks study and decriminalizing jaywalking. Please join us in contacting City of Ithaca elected officials about some or all of these 5 items, to urge they prioritize walking and rolling in the 2023 budget.
UPDATING OUR STATE’S ANTIQUATED ROADWAY REGS FOR BICYCLE INFRASTRUCTURE (late winter 2022). Bike Walk Tompkins joined Bike Tarrytown and bicycling advocates around the state in signing a letter urging that the NYS Department of Transportation update the antiquated Bicycle Facility Design section of its Highway Design Manual, which is geared to confident bicyclists, to embrace modern standards — ones aimed at getting cautious people bicycling for local trips.
SAFE STREETS for ALL in NYS (spring 2022). Traffic fatalities and speeding are on the rise. On average, three New Yorkers die daily in crashes, and hundreds more are seriously injured with debilitating life-long consequences. This affects hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers year after year and costs New York State $15 billion annually. Improving road safety for vulnerable road users — people biking, walking and rolling — is also crucial for reducing carbon emissions from transportation. Why? Because people will only bike, walk and roll more if they feel safe doing so. Bike Walk Tompkins participates with a Safe Streets coalition led by Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives that is advocating for an 8-bill, safe streets legislative agenda, including A1007, which would let Upstate municipalities set their area-wide speed limit as low as 25 mph (instead of 30).
Action alert: Click here to see all 8 bills — known as the “Crash Victims Rights & Safety Act (CVRSA)” — and sign the petition, which will be sent your state representatives.
SAFER & HEALTHIER STREETS with Federal Funding (spring 2022). BWT participated in the League of American Bicyclists’ annual Congressional lobby day this year focusing on funding for two important programs which had been included in the federal Infrastructure Bill but without any funding allocation:
1) the Active Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (ATIIP) program in the budget would allow grants to fund complete bike networks all at once, for maximum climate, health and economic benefits -- unlike existing funded programs that chip away by funding isolated bike infrastructure projects that may take years to fully connect practical destinations. One example of a fundable network is BWT’s own “Better Bike Network for Ithaca”, with 6 proposed routes, developed after extensive public input, to connect Ithaca’s piecemeal, disconnected bike infrastructure pieces.
2) the Healthy Streets Program in the budget would allow grants to reduce flooding, improve air quality, and mitigate the urban heat island effect within communities of color and low income communities by providing grants to state and local governments, as well as nonprofits, to both plant trees and deploy Smart Surfaces, such as reflective pavement in urban heat islands and porous pavement in flood prone areas.
Action alert: In NYS, thank Senator Gillibrand for signing on to the “Dear Colleague” letter in her house urging that ATIIP be funded in this year’s federal budget. Ask Senator Schumer to do the same. Contact your House representative to urge their support.
SNOW-FREE CROSSWALKS & SIDEWALKS in ITHACA (spring 2022). Every winter, Ithaca becomes a labyrinthine obstacle course, as pedestrians struggle to navigate walkways blocked with snow & ice. Sidewalks are often a problem. Crosswalks are worse – especially at the ends where they meet the sidewalk. Blocked walkways are a problem for everyone biking and walking in Ithaca, but especially for older adults, people with disabilities or mobility impairments, and low-income families. It is a solvable problem. Bike Walk Tompkins, Finger Lakes Independence Center and Tompkins County Office for the Aging have joined together to form the Coalition for Snow-Free Sidewalks and Crosswalks, encouraging everyone to send emails to the Mayor and Common Council voicing your support for policies and practices in snow removal for the safety of all — especially for older adults, those with disabilities and mobility impairments, and low-income families.
Action alert: Add your support by emailing council@cityofithaca.org, and please include the coalition organizer, Eric Lerner, in your emails, snow@ericlerner.net. Visit the website to learn more at Ithaca Pedestrian Snow.