Transportation

A grassroots organization is stepping up its efforts to combat harassment on the streets, buses and trains.

For years, Holla Back NYC has been encouraging women to snap pictures of cat callers and harassers, and post the photos on the group’s site. Now the founders want to make that process easier. They are planning to launch an iPhone application this summer that will immediately send the photo and other information to a database. From there, Holla Back will compile data that organizers hope will encourage greater enforcement of anti-harassment laws in the city.

New Yorkers often fester in silence when they encounter rude subway behavior – the man who saunters up the left side of the stairs during rush hour, the woman who files her nails in the seat next to you, the kid who sings out loud to his iPod.

But Brooklyn comedian Tom Sibley doesn’t let public transit offenders off so easy. He targets them with his camera phone.

Sibley’s blog, Subway Douchery, exposes subway riders who violate the understood rules of public transportation, by plastering their pictures on the Web. The blog’s popularity has exploded in the past three months. But not everyone is a fan.

While some applaud Sibley’s nod to common courtesy, others say he’s violating his targets’ privacy.

National auto sales jumped 24 percent in March over the same period in 2009 – an increase attributed, at least in part, to tax incentives for purchasing environmentally friendly vehicles. Green – not only on in money, but in technology – was the unofficial color of the recent New York International Auto Show, which featured new hybrid vehicles, no-emission electric cars and even autos fueled by hydrogen. There were lines outside the “EV” (“Electric Vehicle”)  pavilion, where 10,000 attendees took electric cars for a spin during 10-day show.

Rusty Munro commutes on his motorcycle, from Williamsburg to SoHo, every day, even in winter. He dresses in layers beneath his leather jacket, throws on a neck warmer and pushes off into the cold. He dismounts and parks his bike at a meter.

But before he heads into work, he tears his license plate from the back of his bike, where it’s attached with Velcro strips.

Munro is one of many New York motorcycle and scooter riders who illegally remove their plates and park without feeding meters — and usually get away with it.

Read More