Streetsblog New York City

This is the story about how East Harlem residents and street safety advocates — with leadership from Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito — banded together to win complete streets on First and Second Avenues. After the city backtracked on a plan to build protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuges up to 125th Street on the East Side of Manhattan, this coalition mobilized to put the project back on the table. Later, when the safety improvements came under attack from a few business owners, public health professionals joined Mark-Viverito and NYC DOT to combat misinformation about the redesign and see it through to implementation.

Former Streetsblog Reporter Noah Kazis covered the campaign for protected bike lanes in East Harlem and helps recount the story in this video.

At the beginning of the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ “Designing Cities” conference last week, NYC DOT released new data showing that retail and restaurant sales have tended to increase after streets are redesigned with Select Bus Service, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian plazas. It turns out that there’s more information on the way. Last week’s document was a teaser for a more comprehensive report due out in the next few months.

Businesses in Jackson Heights opposed this plaza at first. Now, they see it as an opportunity. New data bolsters the idea that retail businesses see stronger sales after the implementation of public plazas. Photo: Office of City Council Member Danny Dromm

DOT has hired consultant Bennett Midland to measure not just sales tax collections, but also commercial rents and property assessments after the completion of sustainable streets projects. The news came during a panel on the economic impact of transportation policy at the NACTO conference, where Bennett Midland’s Eric Lee discussed some of the report’s preliminary findings.

The research dispels a myth often employed by opponents of livable streets projects, who claim that plazas, bike lanes and a reduction in the number of parking spaces will be crippling blows to small businesses.

“We can say in New York today that bicycle lanes, pedestrian improvements and plazas — the removal of travel lanes and parking — do not do damage” to retail sales, Lee explained. Although the research does not say that bike lanes and plazas directly cause increased retail sales, Bennett Midland studied 11 retail corridors with street improvements and found that eight have bigger sales increases than nearby commercial streets and the borough-wide average.

The sales tax collections data used for the study was acquired from the Department of Finance. Now that DOT has established a channel with the Department of Finance and has begun using research service CoStar for information on commercial rents and vacancies, economic data on the impact of street design changes may make more appearances in the agency’s future presentations, alongside information on safety metrics like traffic injuries and the incidence of speeding.

Image: NYC DOT

Leading transportation policy decision makers from around the country are gathered at NYU today for the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ “Designing Cities” conference. It’s an exciting moment for livable streets and sustainable transportation, with the people who are implementing a new generation of complete streets, surface transit improvements, public spaces, and parking policies sharing their expertise and helping to spread innovation to other cities.

Streetsblog will have coverage from the conference throughout the next few days. To start off we’ll share some of the new findings from NYC DOT about how local commerce is faring in some specific places after the implementation of safer, more sustainable streets. The case studies are part of a DOT report, “Measuring the City” [PDF], explaining how metrics like safety, transit ridership, bike ridership, and economic performance can be applied to streets — a far more productive approach for cities than purely car-centric metrics like Level of Service.

The most interesting stuff in the report is the data on retail sales and commercial vacancies, which the Daily News and the Post both picked up today. Usually, before and immediately after a new bus lane, bike lane, or public plaza is installed, you can count on at least a few naysayers among nearby businesses. No matter how dysfunctional the status quo may be for pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders, and drivers, if a project helps to solve those problems but happens to take away a few parking spaces, there will be gripes.

The case studies, using retail sales receipts from the Department of Finance, commercial vacancy data from the firm Co-Star, and surveys collected by DOT, show that the fears are misplaced. In each case, a jump in local retail activity (large chains were excluded) followed projects that improved bus service, made biking and walking safer, or added new public space. A few highlights from the report:

• After the installation of Select Bus Service on Fordham Road in the Bronx, local businesses along the route saw a 73 percent increase in retail sales. It’s not just the tentative economic recovery that explains the improvement: Borough-wide the increase has been just 23 percent. This same project, which eliminated some curbside parking and added parking meters on side streets, was repeatedly blasted by some local merchants soon after it debuted. But with a 10 percent increase in bus ridership, added foot traffic seems to be providing a retail boost.

Read more…

American cities and towns should get a leg up on using federal funds to make streets safer for biking and walking, thanks to rules enacted yesterday by the Federal Highway Administration.

Projects like this pedestrian bridge in Austin, Texas, which are built by local agencies, will get a boost from new FHWA rules. Photo: National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse/R.E. Martin

MAP-21, the current transportation law, was passed hurriedly enough that not all the i’s could be dotted and t’s could be crossed — and some of those details simply aren’t the business of Congress to work out. It’s up to U.S. DOT to put a finer point on many of the provisions in the bill. The agency is still struggling with a lot of them and has, admirably, opened the door to significant public input to help them put meat on MAP-21′s bones.

Some of the details came out yesterday, with FHWA’s guidance on the Transportation Alternatives program, which replaced the popular Transportation Enhancements program as a major funding source for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

America Bikes was quick with its analysis of the pros and cons of the new rules, and chief among the good news is that the guidance preserves local control over bike/ped funds by denying states eligibility for TA funds.

The disappointing provisions in MAP-21 haven’t gone away. TA money still gets split down the middle, with half going to cities and towns and the other half going to the states. And state DOTs can still have the option of either running a competitive grant program with their half of the funds, or “flexing” their entire portion to whatever they want. But states can no longer apply to their own grant programs, clearing the way for greater local access to these funds.

“If you make a contest with your own rules, and you apply to it, who’s going to win?” said Mary Lauran Hall, spokesperson for America Bikes.

Primarily, the rule means that if a state decides to use its TA funds on bike and pedestrian infrastructure, local agencies will have a greater say in how the funds get spent. But it won’t just prevent state bike/ped projects from competing against city bike/ped projects. One of the most disappointing changes in MAP-21 was that states can now spend TA funds on environmental mitigation for road building. Those tend to be big, expensive projects that can elbow crosswalks and bike lanes out of the running. This rule seemingly negates that option, unless the state finds a local agency to sponsor the environmental mitigation project.

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Yesterday at the Municipal Art Society Summit, three architecture firms — Foster + Partners, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and WXY architecture + urban design – unveiled proposals to remake public space in Midtown East, as the Bloomberg administration sets out to rezone the area for taller towers.

How a pedestrianized Vanderbilt Avenue might look, according to Foster + Partners.

The rezoning covers a large swath of Midtown, aiming to take advantage of new transit capacity as the Second Avenue Subway and the LIRR’s East Side Access project bring more people to the area. In an interesting twist, the administration wants developers to pitch in for pedestrian improvements as the area becomes a bigger destination for people.

In their public space proposals, the three firms focused on the area immediately around Grand Central Terminal, because although it lies at the heart of the district, the public realm outside the station’s grand interior often leaves much to be desired. The streets surrounding Grand Central empty out at night, and from the outside, the terminal can feel like a bit like a fortress. “It’s opaque,” said Claire Weisz of WXY. “There should be so much more happening.”

The attention-grabbing visual yesterday was SOM’s proposal to build a circular walkway above Grand Central, floating up and down between new skyscrapers on either side of the train terminal. In a panel discussion with the architects, New York magazine architecture critic Justin Davidson dismissed the concept as a “flying doughnut.”

The encouraging part of the panel was that aside from the flashy rendering, the architects are generally looking down, not up, to improve the public realm in Midtown East – and they urged the city to do the same as the rezoning moves ahead.

“The vibrancy of Manhattan is because there is so much action at the sidewalk level,” said Sir Norman Foster. “In exploring the fine print of the zoning, it should be sensitive to the activities at the ground plane, on the sidewalk.”

City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden has already expressed interest in pedestrianizing Vanderbilt Avenue to accommodate the increased foot traffic that will accompany the completion of the East Side Access project. The architects followed Burden’s lead and went further, proposing to expand the pedestrian realm beyond Vanderbilt Avenue.

Read more…

Last year, Hilda Cohen, Ali Loxton and their neighbors picked up the pieces of a torpedoed bike lane proposal for Lafayette Avenue, showing DOT and Brooklyn Community Board 2 the community’s broad support for safer cycling on the busy street. After 1,400 signatures and countless hours of work, Lafayette Avenue from Fulton Street to Classon Avenue was recently striped with a shared lane for bicyclists.

Make Brooklyn Safer is asking Brooklynites to report dangerous intersections to a community map.

Following that victory, Cohen is aiming for safer streets in the rest of the borough. She’s launched a new initiative, Make Brooklyn Safer, and is asking all Brooklynites to help identify dangerous intersections on a map — a project called KROSS/walk, for Kids Riding on Safe Streets.

A year ago, bicycle advocacy was new for Cohen. “I had never done anything like it before,” she said. ”I just got sick of biking with my kids and getting run off the road.”

Although Lafayette Avenue is now improved, Cohen and her children travel on more than just one street. “I am amazed at how fabulous some of the bike infrastructure is in Brooklyn,” Cohen said. “But then it just kind of ends, or it feels like something was forgotten.”

“My daughter is 10 and she’s going to go into middle school,” she said. ”My judgement of a good bike lane is: will I let my kids ride in it?”

Since beginning the Make Lafayette Safer campaign, Cohen has reached out to other parents. “You ask parents in Brooklyn,” she said, and their top concern is “not abduction, it’s traffic.” With children in tow, people gain a new perspective, Cohen said.

Cohen doesn’t want her efforts to just be about bicycling. “If you don’t bike with your kids, you probably walk with your kids,” she said. ”Anybody who moves a little bit slower has a very different perception of the street.”

Cohen wanted to keep the momentum going following her success with her own neighborhood street. When working on Make Lafayette Safer, she discovered that many city agencies actually do want to know what citizens are thinking. “They do want to hear from the public — not just what the community board says we’re saying, but what people are saying,” she said.

“What I learned through Make Lafayette Safer is that you have to have documentation,” she said. Existing tools for documenting unsafe streets just weren’t cutting it. “One of the things I felt about 311 is that you were doing it in a vacuum,” Cohen said. “I always felt like, ‘What are they going to do with this? Am I going to hear anything?’”

Read more…

Sidewalk extensions on Broadway and Whitehall Street in the Financial District. Photo: Stephen Miller

Late last week, DOT completed the installation of gravel epoxy sidewalk extensions in the Financial District along Broadway and Whitehall Street, from the area surrounding the famous bull statue south to an existing plaza between Pearl and Water streets. The additions feature planters and flex-post to keep drivers out, but no seating.

Before the sidewalk widening, DOT counted 390 pedestrians walking in the street south of Stone Street during the peak afternoon hour.

Left, a customer orders from Houda Elali's food truck. Right, pedestrians near Bowling Green. Photos: Stephen Miller

Food truck operator Houda Elali said her truck was back to its usual location on Friday after construction wrapped up on Whitehall Street. “It’s not bad,” she said. Saying that she preferred the gravel epoxy to the usual blacktop, she added that the expanded pedestrian space is useful. “Lots of tourists come through here,” Elali said.

When the plan was unanimously approved by the Community Board 1 Financial District Committee in May, committee chair Ro Sheffe said, “What’s not to like?”

Astoria residents got one day to experience "Newtown Plaza" last month, but they won't have a permanent new public space after Community Board 1's vote on Tuesday. Photo: Stephen Miller

DOT went before Queens Community Board 1 on Tuesday to propose a pedestrian plaza at the intersection of 30th Avenue, 33rd Street and Newtown Avenue. The audience at the meeting was split on the proposal, but CB members were not: They voted against the plaza 25 to 7.

Since the board rejected the plaza, which would have cost $75,000 to install, the location will be receiving three smaller, but permanent, curb extensions at a cost of $400,000. The project could begin as soon as spring 2013. Legally, community boards serve only an advisory role, but DOT representatives said at the start of the meeting that the agency would not install the plaza if the community board voted against it.

Plaza supporters had formed Friends of Newtown Plaza to advocate for a community board “yes” vote, but the plaza was opposed by Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., who favored a smaller intervention that would have preserved through traffic (which DOT had previously rejected). Local business interests, including the 30th Avenue Business Association, were also vocal in their opposition.

Newtown Plaza was the site of DOT’s first one-day demonstration plaza on the last Saturday in August. At the event, DOT staff surveyed passersby about their preferences for the location. Support for the plaza was overwhelming, with 96 percent saying they would like a permanent plaza. And the vast majority — 88 percent — said they got to the plaza by walking. Most respondents came from the immediate neighborhood or adjacent zip codes and cited safety, cleanliness and public space as their top priorities. Few respondents identified parking as a priority.

A plaza would also have helped address the lack of public space in Astoria. According to DOT, city guidelines call for a minimum of 65 square feet of open space per person. Queens has 206 square feet per person, while Astoria has only 16 square feet per person.

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The Astoria plaza plan is up for a community board vote tonight. Image: DOT

The intersection of 30th Avenue, 33rd Street and Newtown Avenue was the site of DOT’s first-ever one-day demonstration plaza. Will it get a permanent public space enhancement?

In June, DOT presented two options for this location: three curb extensions at a cost of $400,000, or the plaza at a cost of $75,000.

So far, Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. has sided with a group of vocal business owners who oppose the plaza. But tonight, the plaza will be up for a vote at Queens Community Board 1, and the dynamic could change.

A strong showing of neighborhood support for the 78th Street Play Street helped sway Queens CB 3 to support a car-free block in Jackson Heights in 2010. Public support for the Astoria plaza could shape the outcome of this project, too.

Merchant attitudes toward pedestrian plazas also have a way of changing after seeing the results in practice. Business owners who started out opposing the 37th Road plaza in Jackson Heights were eventually won over, and announced last month that they would help maintain what they now call “Diversity Plaza.”

Tonight’s community board vote is advisory but figures to factor strongly in DOT’s decision-making process. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. at 25-22 Astoria Boulevard. Stay tuned for coverage here tomorrow.

Yesterday, the city of Chicago rolled out a sweeping new plan for pedestrian safety [PDF]. With some 250 recommendations — including traffic-calming measures like pedestrian islands, chicanes and midblock curb bumpouts — Chicago joins cities like New York and Portland in formalizing a plan to meet targets for reducing pedestrian injuries and deaths.

Chicago is getting serious about pedestrian safety. Photo: CDOT

Chicago Department of Transportation Director Gabe Klein aims to bring the total number of pedestrian fatalities down to zero in 10 years time. Currently about 50 pedestrians are killed annually on Chicago streets.

“We want pedestrian safety to be at the forefront of everything we do,” Klein told the Chicago Tribune. “Everyone in the city is a pedestrian.”

The plan was developed after a series of public meetings. It calls for identifying and repairing two high-collision corridors and four dangerous intersections annually, basing the interventions on crash data. Chicago also aims to improve driver education, conduct police crackdowns on dangerous drivers, and implement tougher safety mandates for taxis.

A wide variety of street infrastructure treatments are listed in Chicago’s toolkit, including road diets, roundabouts, speed humps and pedestrian scrambles — a signal phase for pedestrians only. Even nagging headaches like snow removal lapses and sidewalk closures for construction — treated as a fact of life in most places — are addressed.

Better connectivity for walking trips is another goal. CDOT recommends filling in gaps in the pedestrian network, improving walking routes to transit, and enhancing pedestrian wayfinding systems.

Each recommendation contains a timeframe for implementation, and the plan calls for CDOT to evaluate its progress at regular intervals.

Read more…