Capital Streets, Albany, NY (2026)

08/11/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out last night in Troy to discuss the complicated issue of increasing strain on our street capacity, and who offered feedback to find solutions that best fit our community.

It was a meaningful night of community engagement and collaboration made possible by Noreen McKee (and thanks to Refuge Event Space for hosting us) followed by a lively social at Ilium Bar & Brewing where a lot of laughs (& pretzels 🥨) were had.

We look forward to sharing everyone’s thoughts and our findings from yesterday evening, and to engaging our communities on additional transportation and streets related issues in future meetings.

08/05/2026

🍻 TROY SOCIAL 8/10 🥂

Come hang with us at Illium Brewing Co. (410 Fulton St) at 7 PM on Monday, August 10th after our Public Parking Forum at Refuge Event Space with Councilmember Noreen McKee (Noreen McKee).

A discussion with Troy residents about public parking downtown will take place at Refuge @ 5:30 PM, and then we’ll make our way over to Illium to continue the conversation and just enjoy eachother’s company 🍹

Register for the parking public forum by going to bit.ly/troyparkingforum or click the link in our bio.

See you Monday! 🍺

08/04/2026

Capital Streets and Councilmember Noreen McKee (Noreen McKee) are co-hosting a community meeting to discuss on-street parking in Downtown Troy 🅿️  Monday, August 10 | 5:30 PM Refuge Event Space
 As the population and economy of downtown Troy grows, so does the strain on our street capacity, causing headaches for residents, business owners, and visitors alike. This is a complicated issue and in order to find solutions that best fit our community, community engagement is an important first step.  Come join the discussion with us about how Troy manages its curbside space, and how we can improve on-street parking for residents and businesses. We look forward to facilitating a constructive forum to learn about the experiences in our community and how things can be improved and being able to engage on additional transportation and streets related issues in future meetings.
 Register at bit.ly/troyparkingforum or click the link in our bio.

07/24/2026

STREET IMPROVEMENT ALERT

The City of Albany’s Engineering Department has made a significant street improvement in Washington Park!

Washington Park Road next to the playground will now be one-way, removing the entrance on Western Ave (making it exit only). This is a simple and cost-effective improvement, but has a big impact on reducing traffic near the playground, making it much safer for the many children and families who come to enjoy the park.

To execute this improvement the city narrowed Washington Park Road at two points using bollards and planters. The new raised beds aren’t just pretty - they’re infrastructure hard at work. This implementation is an excellent example of what we call a “quick build” project - semi-permanent infrastructure changes to improve traffic safety, done at a fraction of the cost of concrete. Quick builds can also be easily removed or amended if needed.

Capital Streets has been one of many voices advocating for traffic calming in Washington Park, and we worked with several partners to push for this change. Shout out to Deirdre Brodie for her tireless advocacy efforts to make this happen, and to the Washington Park Conservancy, Walkable Albany, WPNA, Center Square Association and Hudson Park Neighborhood Association (HPNA). Materials for the quick build were supplied by Capital Roots.

While implementation of the broader Washington Park Complete Streets Plan is stalled due to funding challenges, we’re proud and grateful to the City and Dorcey Applyrs for this tremendous low-cost way to improve safety and quality of life in the meantime.

Thank you albanynyofficial & Albany Mayor Dr. Dorcey Applyrs for taking steps to make our streets (and keep our kids) safer! We can’t wait to continue to work together on more opportunities for quick builds, especially in places like school zones, across the city.

07/22/2026

It feels like e-bike complaints are rivaling calls for halts on data center development in the headlines as of late. Perhaps you’ve voiced concern yourself after seeing some… uh, questionable maneuvers of electric devices in our streets. You might even be asking, “Can’t we just leg-e-slate this problem away?”

We here at Capital Streets think it’s critical to distinguish safe, useful, legal e-bikes from their fast moving, illegal counterparts (“e-motos”) giving all these devices a bad rap. We support the use of legal devices as affordable, practical, and clean transportation options.

Class 1 and 2 e-bikes (legal in NYS) only provide e-assist up to 20 mph, and legal electric scooters also have a max speed of 20 mph (while their speed limit is 15 mph in NYS). Meanwhile, illegal e-motos and other micromobility devices often exceed 30 mph - with some devices advertising top speeds over 60 mph (their braking ability is a whole other question 😬).

The differences are important, and the speed of these vehicles change how they should be treated by law. Just like with motor vehicles, miseducation and misuse of micromobility devices can cause very real safety concerns, but criminalizing legal e-bikes and electric scooters by lumping them in with illegal micromobility devices will not solve the problem. It is essential that lawmakers understand the differences between options on the market today, and how to develop sound legislation while avoiding negatively impacting law-abiding e-device commuters around the Capital Region.

We agree action is needed, but much of the proposed legislation we’ve seen fails to address the actual issues. The availability of illegal, fast-moving devices ill-equipped with insufficient safety features is a consumer protection issue, and it’s time for NYS lawmakers to start treating it as such.

For more on our thoughts on common sense protections for New Yorkers and the legislation of e-bikes and micromobility devices in the region, read our full memo here:https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6314b8c5d1a9126bedb8c912/t/6a60d295dff4995150525ab8/1784730261779/E-Bike+Legislation+Memo+7.21.26.pdf

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Pictured are Capital Streets board (Ben MacKrell) & staff (James Rath, Executive Dir. & Casey Allen, Communications Mgr) members on their Class 1 & 2 e-bikes.

07/21/2026

LEGISLATION PASSED IN TROY  We worked with Councilmember Greg Campbell-Cohen (CM Greg Campbell-Cohen) to update the Troy City Code, eliminating barriers to building side paths and other shared use paths in the City of Troy.  Legislation was introduced back in June (and has now passed!) to define and modernize the city’s engineering standards for sidewalks and shared use paths. Ordinances 17 & 18 were drafted in collaboration with neighbors, planners, engineers, and former D4 Councilmember (and former City Engineer) Aaron Vera. Significant and helpful contributions were also made by Troy’s City Engineer, Chris Marini, and by Acting Corporation Counsel, Rick Morrissey.

“Although sidewalks and shared use paths are quite different from an engineering and planning perspective, the vagueness and a lack of distinction in the city code has at times hampered development of multi-modal infrastructure in the city,” says Campbell-Cohen. “Additionally, aspects of our sidewalk regulations are decades to centuries out of date.”

This issue was identified a few years ago, when our Executive Director, James Rath, was calling for a sidepath to be included in part of a major development proposal. The developer was on board, but the idea was squashed by the City’s Corporation Counsel, who claimed side paths were not legal in the City of Troy. The proposal development fell through (thankfully), but now the city is legally ready for next time.

Thanks to Councilmember Campbell-Cohen for spearheading this common-sense legislative update, and to the entire Troy City Council for supporting the measure. We’re looking forward to working with the Council again in the near future to continue improving Troy’s streets.

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Pictured is an existing side path in Schenectady near the harbor.

07/14/2026

Verity Engineering offers a variety of development, site planning and transportation services — and when it comes to transportation services, their focus is on active transportation. Verity’s goal is to improve the built environment for all users through implementation of complete streets and trail projects.

Pictured is a segment of their work on the Empire State Trail, but Verity offers planning services for active transportation from trail studies to complete streets planning, as well as trail design and traffic engineering services.  Like us, they believe in complete streets, and that a good roadway should facilitate all modes of transportation, including vehicles, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit. That is why we are proud to have Verity Engineering’s continued support of the work that we do, and grateful for opportunities to collaborate with them.

Businesses can sponsor Capital Streets’ work to create safer, more connected, and more livable communities across the Capital Region. To learn more about how you can partner with us as a business, or support our work as an individual, visit capitalstreets.org/support

Your Support Helps Us:
- Push for infrastructure and policy changes at the local, regional, and state levels
- Support grassroots action and advocacy
- Strengthen walkable, bike-friendly, and transit-oriented communities
- Build more connected, resilient, and livable neighborhoods

STREETS FOR EVERYONE!

07/10/2026

We had the opportunity to commute with Troy Resident and Capital Streets supporter, Andrew Costello, for the first in our series “Commuting with Capital Streets.”  We covered a lot of ground, literally and figuratively, with Andrew, during which conversation turned to repaving without improvement along his commute by bicycle to pick up his child from aftercare.  Prior to our ride Andrew shared, “The lack of a painted bicycle lane on 1st Street between Canal St and Tyler St is very concerning to me. I use this route twice a day to bring my daughter to school, and while there’s a bike lane on some of 1st St, it disappears before crossing the Poestenkill. While I find paint to be woefully inadequate protection, it at least informs drivers where to expect bicycles to be. This stretch needs a well marked parking-protected bike lane to make our streets, and our commute to school, safer.”  Have you observed repaving without improving in your neighborhood in the City of Troy or Albany? Find out more about local ordinances that require our cities to make common-sense safety improvements when streets are being repaved, and tell us about your own experience with a missed repaving opportunity by visiting the link in our bio or capitalstreets.org/repaving

Are you interested in us joining you on our commute? We’d love to walk, ride or roll with you around the Capital Region! Email us at [email protected] to discuss commuting with Capital Streets.

06/30/2026

Join us on Wednesday, July 22nd at The Local 217 to beat the heat and hang with our pals Walkable Albany for our joint Summer Social ☀️

Stop by anytime after 5:30 PM for a drink and a chat with staff, board, advocates, neighbors and friends 🍹

All are welcome (Albany resident or not) — see you there! 🍻

06/29/2026

✨ STAFF SPOTLIGHT ✨  Co-Founder of and Planner at Capital Streets, Kyle Hatch, is an experienced planner with a demonstrated history of working in nonprofit and private planning sectors. He is skilled in community engagement, transportation planning, program and policy development, research, and grant administration.  Prior to joining us on staff at Capital Streets, Kyle worked as a planning consultant with various firms and communities around the East Coast, where he saw firsthand the disconnect between the goals that communities had and their ability to follow through on achieving them.  Kyle and Capital Streets Co-Founder/Executive Director, James Rath, met just before the pandemic and quickly connected on their shared vision for a region with a more equitable, sustainable, and effective transportation system. As two urban planners with 20+ years of combined experience, they identified how a regional advocacy organization could support local leaders and work collaboratively with partners to advance infrastructure and policy that promote walking, biking, and transit across county lines.  Outside of Capital Streets, Kyle is a proud UAlbany Alum, Girl Dad, history buff, musician and steady Stewart’s coffee drinker.  ——  Pictured are images captured at our June 5th Albany Walk & Talk. This walk was made possible by the generous support and sponsorship of CDTA, LaBella Associates, Stantec and CDPHP, and is part of a three-part community walk series. Details about our third and final 2026 walk to follow.

Capital Streets

08/11/2026

08/05/2026

08/04/2026

07/24/2026

07/22/2026

07/21/2026

07/14/2026

07/10/2026

06/30/2026

06/29/2026

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