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Evergreen C. Chou
http://www.myspace.com/evergreen_chou Candidate Submitted Biography: Evergreen Chou is the Green Party State Committee member for District 22, an SEIU/1199 Delegate, a member of the local Neighborhood Advisory Board #7, and the Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 888. City Council Survey (District 20): Evergreen C. ChouQuestion 1: What is the most important transportation need in your district? As a Council Member, how would you work to address this need?We are lucky in Flushing to be served by buses and #7 train. But the fares are too high. We need reduced Metro Card fare to encourage more ridership. Reducing fares along with a complete line of Hybrid buses will reduce air pollution. We need to have bicycle lanes to protect cyclists and encourage more people to use their bicycle and leave the car home. Downtown Flushing is ideal for a bicycle paths. The bicycle lanes will reduce car traffic and thus air pollution. We can have tricycle pedicab to help with moving goods to bus, train and or car. Question 2: The intersection of Union Street and Northern Blvd is one of the most dangerous in your district, where 1 people died and 78 people were injured between 1995-2005 (NYS DOT). As a City Council member, what traffic enforcement policies or physical changes to the intersection infrastructure would you support to make this intersection safer for everyone who uses it (pedestrians, cyclists and drivers)?I would contact DOT to have larger brighter and count down pedestrian light for pedestrian to see clearly. I would have DOT put up big sign telling motorist to yield to pedestrian on right turns. I would have DOT randomly come to this intersection and ticker cars that violate DOT laws. We need to have bicycle lanes in Flushing as a start to a bicycle friendly Queens. Motorist must also yield to cyclist or face penalties. Question 3: According to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles' most currently available data, in 2007 speeding was a contributing factor in over 3,000 motor vehicle crashes in New York City. Furthermore, the same data showed that the top human contributing factor to the 264 fatal crashes in New York City during 2007 was also speeding. Given these figures, what measures, if any, do you support to redress this problem? Finally, do you believe that New York City’s current speed limits are safe?The current speed limit is adequate. But the problem is enforcement. We can have more speed bums in areas prone to motorist speeding. We can look into a camera ticking system for those motor vehicles that are speeding. We already have this function for cars breaking red lights on some intersection. Question 4: The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's website reports: "In New York City, obesity is epidemic: more than half of adult New Yorkers are overweight (34%) or obese (22%). Data show that obesity begins early in life: nearly half of all elementary school children and Head Start children are not a healthy weight. In New York City, 1 in 5 kindergarten students, and 1 in 4 Head Start children, is obese." Do you believe that increasing walking and biking in New York City would improve public health? If yes, how would you work to increase walking and biking in your district?Yes I want school children to walk more and bicycle more. But we must have safe bicycle lanes. We must provide places to park bicycle without fear of theft. The schools must budget in gym classes for all grades to teach the benefits of recreation. We adults can lead by example. Can you imagine if the school children saw their teacher on a bicycle in the bike lane coming to school to work and parking their bicycle in the bicycle lot. We must encourage low cost and durable bicycles so that purchasing a bicycle is not out of the reach of the school parents. Getting soda and candy out of schools and bringing in Organic fruits and vegetables is another method to deal with the epidemic of obesity. Question 5: Road pricing, including such measures as non-stop tolling, fees based on vehicle miles travelled or entry into a highly congested zone, has been the source of much discussion in New York City and other major metropolitan areas. London famously uses a congestion charge to fund its transit system, Oregon recently piloted a program to replace the gas tax with a fee for miles driven and Seattle recently studied how road pricing could be introduced on a regional basis. Seattle's study, “Traffic Choices Study" (http://psrc.org/projects/trafficchoices/index.htm), found that introducing new tolls on major corridors during peak traffic hours influenced drivers’ behavior and projected that a region-wide road pricing scheme could significantly reduce vehicular traffic congestion. Do you think that introducing a road pricing strategy would change New Yorkers’ travel choices? Do you think that this would be an effective way for the City to reduce backups on high-traffic roadways like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Gowanus Expressway or the Long Island Expressway? Finally, do you believe there are additional benefits in the surrounding neighborhoods which could be realized from the reduction of vehicular congestion on these routes?Yes, I support congestion pricing as a method to reduce vehicular congestion. But we must not just stop there. We must reduce transit fare so that the person who feels the high cost of tolls will automatically take public transit. We must have bike lanes so that if it is within a certain distance the driver will be able to bike to work with safe bike lanes and a safe place to park his/her bicycle. Certain countries have a bicycle rental system where its citizens and or tourist can just pay and pick up bicycle and drop off at various points in the city. Question 6: Do you believe that reducing residential parking requirements as set forth within NYC zoning regulations would affect neighborhood traffic congestion, and if so, in what way? During the discussion for Congestion Pricing there was a concern among many outlying neighborhood that many drivers in order to avoid paying the tolls will drive to let us say a Queens neighborhood and park their cars and then take the train into Manhattan. So I support a certain rush hour based restriction for residential parking requirements. This restriction will solely be for residential street thus not affection commerce in the local neighborhood streets. Question 7: The NYC Department of Transportation's Public Plaza Program, Pedestrian Street Program and Summer Streets events are intended to diversify the use of public space and provide more places for New Yorkers to recreate and socialize. Do you support the temporary or permanent repurposing of street space for pedestrians and cyclists? Yes I support the Public Plaza Program. But I would like this program to spread out to all borough of NYC. When the space is closed to traffic, we should schedule street fairs. We should have fresh market vendors. We should have city agencies have tables to let its residents know what services are available and where to get help. This will help each small neighborhood to get to know its government, get to know each other and build community trust. Question 8: The City recently released plans for Bus Rapid Transit and expressed interest in bringing a bike share program to New York City. Do you think these new projects would enhance the city's transportation network? Please explain.Yes, the ultimate goal is to increase ridership. So we must reduce fare so that the public will not hesitate to ride the bus and or trains as an alternative to driving their car. We must make NYC bicycle friendly by having bike lanes, bike racks for lock up and buses and trains that can accommodate bicycles. This can be bike racks in front of buses. This can be a park of the subway that is designated for bicycle riders to use at all times.
Submitted by evergreen on Fri, 08/07/2009 - 11:24.
Submitted by evergreen on Wed, 08/05/2009 - 22:04.
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