Save Lives and Improve Transportation for NYC

Thank you for supporting Transportation Alternatives’ first-ever GlobalGiving project!

Don’t forget to activate your complementary T.A. membership by emailing membership@transalt.org.

It’s been a busy first half of 2015 for T.A. While our work continues to save lives and improve daily transportation for all New Yorkers, it’s time to deactivate this project on Global Giving in order to focus on exciting upcoming campaigns. Don’t worry, we’ll get back on here soon!

Here’s a recap of T.A.’s achievements so far this year – all made possible thanks to your generosity:

• Defending New Yorkers’ right of way: A special interest group recently brought a political challenge before the City Council to New York City’s Right of Way Law, which protects pedestrians and bicyclists in crosswalks and bike lanes. The proposed bill would exempt bus drivers from the lifesaving law. With your support, T.A. sprang into action. We galvanized thousands of New Yorkers to contact their representatives, launched a public campaign focused on the impact on victims and their families, and succeeded in getting key City Council Members to drop their support of the exemption.

• “Great Streets” project to fix dangerous roadways: In March, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) announced the Vision Zero Great Streets project, which will invest $250 million over the next four years to reconstruct four of the city’s most dangerous streets: Queens Boulevard, the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and Atlantic and Fourth avenues in Brooklyn. The project is a victory for T.A. staff and activists after two years of diligent advocacy for the transformation of three of the chosen streets. Even as the project kicks off, we’re still working toward the transformation of all of New York City’s arterial streets – busy, wide roadways that are the site of most traffic fatalities.

• Successful Lobby Day at City Hall:  On April 13, over 85 New Yorkers joined T.A. and Families for Safe Streets, a T.A. committee of New Yorkers who have lost loved ones to traffic violence, for a lobby day at City Hall. The day’s meetings resulted in a majority of City Council Members requesting that Mayor de Blasio double the capital commitment currently outlined in the DOT’s operating budget for street redesigns.

• Record-breaking participation in Bike Month activities: May was Bike Month! A record 593 workplaces and nearly 4,000 employees participated in T.A.’s three-week-long Bike to Work Challenge. The challenge winners were announced at the third annual Bike Home from Work Party under the archway of the Manhattan Bridge in Dumbo, Brooklyn – the biggest celebration of bicycle commuting New York City has ever seen.

• Two tremendous accolades: After a lengthy selection and interview process, T.A. was announced as the 2015 winner of the Brooke W. Mahoney Award for Outstanding Board Leadership. The unique award is bestowed annually on a nonprofit in the tri-state region for exemplary service by a board of directors. T.A. also received its fourth-consecutive 4-star Charity Navigator rating, the highest rating given by America’s leading evaluator of charities.

Moving forward, T.A. is working on new campaigns – from the transformation of Brooklyn’s Meeker Avenue to the completion of the Harbor Ring over the Verrazano Bridge. To stay up to date with our work in your borough and your neighborhood, activate your T.A. membership today by emailing membership@transalt.org.

Thank you again for your incredible support.