I meant to finish this last night, but after walking something like 20 miles over the last 3 days and handing out information for Transportation Alternatives at the Queensboro bridge last night  I was a little tired so you'll have to forgive me. :)

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Now that the strike is over and the trains and buses are running again, we can take stock of the third transit strike in 40 years (1966, 1980, 2005) and the third time that NYC's transportation system has been disrupted for more than 24 hours in less than 5 years (Sept 11, Blackout 2003, the Transit Strike). All of these events have illustrated the value of mass transit, the inability of cars to replace it and the need for more transportation alternatives to both mass transit and automobiles.

There are many great photos of the strike in the blogosphere, starting with the indispensible Gothamist, which has a good round up of all the different local photo slide shows. AD over at Startsandfits, has some great photos so does Curbed.

I started taking photos on 2 mile walk to work along 2nd Ave, but not all came out as well as I had hoped. Here's a few that were no blurry beyond recognition.

For the first time in 25 years New York City is largely shutdown today as the Transport Workers Union local 100 rejected a final offer from the MTA and went on strike. I could tell that the strike was on early this morning because of all the honking horns out my window (traffic will be a nightmare today). As I have mentioned before, a lot of wealth rides on NYC rails and buses. Which is why the Taylor law was enacted, making any strike illegal, resulting in fines that increase exponentially everyday.

This could be a watershed in how New York City views it's all its transit systems, including biking, walking, carpooling and even skating to work. The 1980 strike is largely given credit for making people more comfortable wearing sneakers to work and then changing into their dress shoes at the office.