Now we're getting e-bikes

From PIX11:

On July 28, riders in some areas will be able to test E-bikes with motors that help them ride.

This is part of the expanded bikeshare program. During the month of July, the Rockaways and Coney Island will see bikes that can be rented without a docking station.

Later in the month, Staten Island's North Shore and the Fordham Section of the Bronx will also be a part of the program.

During this test time, the city says it will be evaluating "companies’ compliance with pilot requirements around data accessibility and user privacy."

JUMP Bikes, which was born in New York City, will bring the first e-bikes to Staten Island and the Bronx.

Lime Bike and Citi Bike are also participating in these test areas.

Inside crash pads

From Brick Underground:

People outside of the airline industry aren’t very familiar with crash pads, so the easiest way to explain it is it's like a crowded college dorm. Usually someone who owns an apartment in Kew Gardens—a popular spot for flight attendants since it’s equidistant from JFK and La Guardia—will run a crash pad and rent out beds. Probably nine out of 10 flight attendants and pilots that I know live in a crash pad. More often than not, it’s a few bunk beds per room in a fully furnished apartment, with everyone paying between $200 and $400 per month.

Many flight attendants and pilots commute to New York from other cities and spend this extra money monthly so they don’t have to rent a hotel when they have back-to-back trips. Hotels are only paid for by the airline when you’re on a layover. If you choose to live in another city and commute to a major-city airport—like NYC, Chicago, or Atlanta, for instance—then any overnight accommodations are on you. Most flight attendants get paid by the hour and only get a small per diem (about $2 per hour) when you’re working. For me, that just barely covers food.

Crash pads are technically illegal, kind of like an Airbnb, but I’ve only heard of one crash pad being shut down. Most people pay their landlord month-to-month and are not on a lease, but there is a little more trust since we all were vetted by our companies to work for airlines and crash pads aren’t posted on Craigslist. They're discovered by word of mouth, and there is a screening and interview process to get a place in one. That said, we didn’t all trust each other. Sometimes there are locked bins provided at the crash pad, but most people just take their stuff with them just to be sure no one would steal them while they were gone.

Laser interference on the rise

From WPIX:

The FBI is calling this a very serious and dangerous situation. Lasers can temporarily or permanently blind a pilot and crew.

There is a danger in the air, and it’s hurting the crews piloting airplanes at New York-area airports.

According to the FBI, the number of laser incidents targeting airplanes and pilots are increasing in New York City. In fact they’re up 17 percent since last year.

Law enforcement officials said the two most recent incidents happened on October 15, 2013. The first, at 7:35 p.m., involving Shuttle America flight 5973. In that instance, the FBI said, the aircraft cockpit was illuminated by a green laser on the final approach to La Guardia Airport.

The incident occurred approximately six miles from the runway, at 2,000 feet. The crew reported that the laser beam originated about a half mile west of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

The second incident occurred at 10:37 p.m. that same night. A private aircraft reported a green laser two miles southwest of La Guardia Airport while heading eastbound over the Triborough Bridge. The laser originated near the intersection of Broadway and Steinway Street in Queens.

No injuries were reported in either of those recent incidents at LGA, but several commercial pilots earlier this year suffered significant injury including a burnt retina.

Someone pointing lasers at planes

From the Huffington Post:

The Federal Aviation Administration is urging witnesses to contact police after someone aimed a green laser at six airliners as they landed at LaGuardia airport over the weekend.

Lasers can blind or distract pilots. The laser came from a point about five miles southwest of the airport, hitting the planes as they were passing over Queens or Brooklyn.

On Friday night, it hit commuter jets operated by Continental, U.S. Airways, American Eagle and Transtates Airlines, which operates shuttle flights for both United and U.S. Airways. Pilots reported the strikes between 6:06 p.m. and 7:56 p.m.

On Saturday, the laser hit a Continental commuter jet and a United Airlines Boeing 757, both around 7 p.m. The planes were between 1,600 and 2,500 feet above New York at the time.

All of the airliners landed safely, FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac said.

The FAA is asking anyone with information about the laser to contact police or send an email to LaserReports(at)faa.gov.

Who needs community input?

From the NY Times:

It has never been easy for a mayor to get things done in New York City, where every government proposal must navigate a thicket of community groups, policy boards, and empowered neighborhood gadflies who can blackball a project in a blink.

So the Bloomberg administration has taken a tack that could be called “do it first, answer questions later.” And the key to the strategy is to start small, and to use the word “pilot.”

Dozens of marquee administration projects, as broad as transforming the city streetscape with pedestrian plazas and bright green bike lanes or using new ways to train principals and encourage school attendance, have started as so-called pilot programs, ostensible experiments that are often exempt from the usual forms of city review.

The pilot has emerged as the mayor’s signature policy weapon. Admirers see an innovative way around red tape. Critics see a blunt tool that undermines democracy by minimizing the public’s role in scrutinizing the ideas of government.

Once a pilot is in place, there generally is no requirement for review in, say, a public hearing or a City Council committee, even if the pilot is expanded. Indeed, some pilots are expanded but never pronounced permanent, suggesting that they are still in the experimental stages.

Pilots' apartments more like flophouses

From the NY Post:

They sleep eight to a room in cramped apartments that can get so out of control that they'd put a frat house to shame -- making getting a good night's rest harder than flying a jet.

But it's just a day in the life for hundreds of pilots who fly out of city airports and spend their nights in dingy Queens crash pads crammed with up to 20 beds.

Crew members for several major airlines told The Post they often get no more than four hours of sleep before their shifts.

Some rented apartments in Kew Gardens and Jackson Heights have rooms stuffed with as many as four bunk beds. Cash-strapped pilots, mechanics and flight attendants pay as little as $125 to $260 per month to stay there.

Some are co-ed havens for sex and parties, while others are home to a constantly rotating cast of characters trying to catch some shut-eye before takeoff.