Streetsblog New York City

Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen was the site of another pedestrian death Wednesday. Around 8:44 a.m., Seth Kahn was crossing Ninth at W. 53rd Street when he was hit by an out-of-service bus. He died a short time later at Roosevelt Hospital. Kahn, a 22-year-old from Westchester, was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Inevitably, some media reports portray Kahn, who was in the crosswalk, as trying to beat the light, while making less of the fact that the bus driver, turning left from 53rd, must have also rushed into the intersection. The driver was not charged.

Despite the constant presence of pedestrians, Ninth Avenue is a notoriously dangerous place for people to walk. The quotes have been removed from the story now, but a local resident told NY1 (via Gothamist): "That particular corner always has some accidents. All the cars travel very fast and there's too many buses using 53rd Street and they don't even look for pedestrians."

Kahn was the fourth known pedestrian to die in the city in less than a week. On Tuesday a corrections officer with a suspended license hit Dorothea Wallace of Prospect Heights as she walked to work. Luis Rivera of the Bronx was struck and killed by a city bus driver on Halloween after he reportedly threw something at the bus' windshield. And last Friday, off-duty NYPD detective Kevin Spellman ran down 67-year-old Drana Nikac as she crossed a street in Kingsbridge.

On Saturday, over 50 people, including several local electeds and candidates, joined bereaved family members for a memorial march in honor of pedestrians killed on Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen.

In recent years, drivers have struck and killed six people on Ninth between 36th and 45th Streets. The victims were eulogized this weekend, with the circumstances of their deaths -- some of which received little or no mention in local media -- recounted. The march was sponsored by the Clinton Hell's Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety (CHEKPEDS), the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association and Transportation Alternatives.

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CHEKPEDS, the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association and Transportation Alternatives will hold a march tomorrow in honor of pedestrians killed on Ninth Avenue. The march will begin at 2:00 p.m. on the west side of Ninth at 45th Street and will proceed to 36th Street. Along the way, commemorative plaques will be installed for six pedestrians killed by cars in recent years: Randolph Walker, Nina Petrov, Douglas Dibble, Fabiola Grande-Coyotl, Sabina Paradi, and most recent victim Susanne M. Schnitzer.

Assembly Member Dick Gottfried, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City Council Member John Liu and Manhattan district attorney candidate Richard Aborn are expected to participate. 

Reads a TA media release:

Ninth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen, with its many accesses to the Lincoln Tunnel, remains one of New York City's most dangerous streets for pedestrians. The community was once festering with crime, but in a recent survey 70% of the residents said they fear for their lives when they cross the street, while only 5% are scared of crime.

It is very encouraging that a potential future Manhattan DA is taking part in events like this, and we'd feel a lot better about Liu's involvement if he'd stop badmouthing measures to make pedestrians safer.

Expect calls tomorrow for passage of the Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez Law, which would mandate safety training and community service for New York State drivers who seriously injure or kill a pedestrian or cyclist. According to TA, the driver who killed Susanne Schnitzer left the scene. Though he was later located, he has not been charged for taking her life. In such cases, the Ng-Martinez bill would give DAs more options to pursue charges, adding a modicum of muscle to the state's weak laws against deadly driving.

The Lincoln Tunnel Express Bus Lane is a congestion-busting powerhouse, moving 62,000 riders into Manhattan during the morning rush every day and enticing huge numbers of commuters to leave their cars at home. It is now "the most efficient roadway in the country," according to an analysis by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. One shudders to think of the traffic nightmare we'd have without it.

The Lincoln Tunnel XBL was established all the way back in 1971. In the last 38 years, bus ridership crossing the Hudson has boomed, especially this decade, but capacity for buses hasn't kept pace. Unless provisions are made to accommodate more bus travel -- and soon -- riders will face slower trips, the ridership gains of recent years will flatten out, and traffic troubles will deepen as more commuters choose to drive.

The good news is that it doesn't take all that much time or money to deliver some significant enhancements for bus riders. In a new report, "Express Route to Better Bus Service" [PDF], Tri-State lays out a strategy to expand on the success of the Lincoln Tunnel XBL and make bus travel more attractive for all trips across the Hudson. It's a wake-up call for the Port Authority to get moving on some long-overdue improvements.

"A population nearly the size of Cincinnati travels by bus across the Hudson River every weekday, but plans to enhance service for these riders are stalled," said Tri-State's Veronica Vanterpool, co-author of the report. "With bus travel anticipated to grow, we need to stop treating bus riders like second-class citizens and provide them with faster commutes and better access to information."

Tri-State recommends creating a westbound Lincoln Tunnel XBL during the evening rush and moving full-speed ahead with plans for a new high occupancy/toll lane for the morning commute (which has been stuck in the study phase for way too long). The report also touches on strategies to speed bus service across other Hudson River crossings, organize on-street loading for the city's growing volume of private bus operators, and make it easier for riders to plan their trips.

Follow the jump for the full slate of Tri-State's major recommendations.

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In what looks like a big win for community livable streets advocates, the Hell's Kitchen Neighborhood Association has settled its long-standing lawsuit over parking in the Hudson Yards area, where the Bloomberg administration sought the construction of thousands of new spaces. 

At issue was a rezoning provision that would have dramatically increased parking inventory for new Hudson Yards development by establishing parking minimum requirements. HKNA claimed the parking plan -- adopted in 2005 as part of the failed bid to build a far West Side football stadium -- violated a 1982 agreement to limit parking below 60th Street in order to keep the city in compliance with the Clean Air Act. 

The 2005 zoning, according to HKNA, would have permitted the construction of up to 17,500 new parking spots (estimates cited by neighborhood media pegged the number at closer to 20,000). Under the terms of the settlement, says an HKNA statement, "new development in the Hudson Yards will be limited to no more than 6,100 parking spaces" -- a number that, all things considered, "is expected to be approximately the same as would have been constructed under the 1982 zoning rules."

And for the first time, special permits for additional parking spaces will not be approved unless there is an actual shortage of parking in the Hudson Yards area. Currently there is no limit on special permits. The Departments of City Planning, Consumer Affairs, and Buildings will collaborate to keep an up-to-date inventory of parking spaces in the area and publish it on a web site.

The city has also abandoned plans for a 950-space underground garage originally intended for use by the stadium.

Needless to say, for a neighborhood already overrun with traffic congestion and parking garages, with attendant high levels of asthma to prove it, the settlement is welcome news. Here's hoping it might inspire the Bloomberg admin to reconsider its pro-parking push in other areas of the city.

Former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, widely credited as the architect of PlaNYC, spoke at the Museum of the City of New York last week on the potential impact of Mayor Bloomberg's signature program. According to City Room, Doctoroff considers the two-year-old environmental blueprint on par with such grand projects as Central Park and the development of the Manhattan street grid.

Among the outcomes so far: The conversion of 15 percent of the taxi fleet to clean-fuel vehicles, the construction of 79 new playgrounds, $100 million a year to increase the energy efficiency of government buildings, 20 pilot projects to clean up city waterways, hundreds of miles of new bike lanes. Ninety-three percent of the 127 initiatives are under way, Mr. Doctoroff said.

"The biggest achievement of them all," he said, is a greenhouse-gas inventory showing a 2.5 percent reduction in citywide carbon emissions, "at a time when greenhouse gases in cities around the nation continue to increase."

There is little doubt that PlaNYC is an ambitious and noble undertaking, despite the failure of congestion pricing -- which Doctoroff rightly cites as a direct cause of the current MTA funding crisis. But it seems a little specious to brag about reductions in greenhouse gas emissions when the Bloomberg administration has continued to vigorously promote VMT-inducing suburban-style parking, a contradiction not lost on City Room commenters like Chris, who writes:

What’s most frustrating is how Bloomberg and his advisors fail to make some very basic connections between their policies, for example working for modest transit improvements while promoting development that is very parking-intensive. Bronx Terminal Market is a prime example of this. Big box development with considerable parking availability which will do exactly what it is designed for- bring more cars, congestion, and pollution into the city.

So give credit where credit is due, but so many people wish Bloomberg would connect the dots.

Indeed. Even as he lobbied for PlaNYC and congestion pricing, Doctoroff himself was a prime mover behind the Yankee Stadium parking deal and greenhouse gas catastrophes like the Gateway Center. There's the legal battle waged by the administration to bring some 20,000 parking spots to Hell's Kitchen. And just last week Bloomberg celebrated the opening of driving-intensive commercial development at the Gateway project -- one day after announcing a new "green" buildings initiative. In fact, when asked point blank by Streetsblog about the connection between more parking and more driving, the mayor either didn't understand the question or chose not to address it.

Chris believes there's something "far more complex than just ignorance" at work here. We agree. The question is, will the Bloomberg administration safeguard the progress of PlaNYC by reversing its disastrous parking policies?

From Caroline Samponaro, Director of Bicycle Advocacy for Transportation Alternatives:

At last night’s Manhattan Community Board 4 meeting the full board voted overwhelmingly in support of the DOT’s proposed extension of the Eighth Avenue bike lane from 14th to 23rd Streets. Only two board members voted against this plan. Zero community members attended the meeting to speak out against the bike lane. Eight community members attended to speak in favor. Because of the noticeable amount of support in the crowd, the chair, J.D. Noland, actually moved Eighth Avenue up from item 27 to item number two on the agenda, knowing so many people were in the room waiting to hear the verdict.

When it came time for the board to vote, at least two board members who had formerly been leading opponents of Eighth Avenue went on record as now supporting the plan and thanking the CB4 Transportation Committee for holding such a thoughtful and comprehensive public forum on the topic in November.

It is important to remember why Eighth Avenue is now being supported by CB4.

1. The board did a thorough job of working with the community and addressing all of their concerns in their resolution, as well as structuring a forum to help alleviate misinformed concerns. The DOT responded to CB4’s desire for meaningful community outreach and has also responded to these concerns, or in some cases indicated the city will work with the board in the future.

2. Supporters SHOWED UP and SPOKE at these public meetings in numbers far outnumbering opponents, making it undeniable that public input matters tremendously in this process.

3. No opponent could argue with the facts: 280 pedestrians and bicyclists were struck on Eighth Avenue between 14th and 23rd Streets from 1995 to 2005 (our most recent crash data) -- that’s a very high crash rate. In the year since its installation, a comparable project on Ninth Avenue has achieved dramatic reductions in crashes. Data collected by the NYC Department of Transportation shows the impact of that project, and the results we can expect to see on Eighth Avenue:

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Manhattan Community Board 4 will vote tonight on whether to recommend extending the protected bike lane on Eighth Avenue, now under construction below W. 14th Street, north to W. 23rd.

The board's transportation committee signed off on the lane last month. Still, about a dozen speakers turned out to oppose the project, which has community advocates, including CHEKPEDS, calling for a strong showing tonight by all who support a safer Eighth Avenue.

WHAT: Manhattan Community Board 4 General Meeting

WHEN: Wednesday, December 3, 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Roosevelt Hospital, 10th Avenue between 58th and 59th St.

Last night, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 4 voted 8-2 in support of extending the protected bike lane on Eighth Avenue, now under construction below W. 14th Street, north to 23rd. Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives sends this account.

The meeting turnout was high, with roughly 40 people speaking 2-1 in favor of the proposed protected bike lane. There were a lot of cyclists, most of them Chelsea residents. Joshua David of Friends of the Highline, Mike Epstein representing Google, as well as Ian Dutton and Shirley Secunda from CB2 all helped set a good, supportive tone early on. The issue of gay (or-anti) gay street design, which got some mention in the press last month, was dismissed early one by one speaker as a "lavender herring" and never came up again.

Of the 10-15 people speaking against the project, about five spoke as if this was a referendum on cycling, railing against bikers as public enemy #1 (thank you Hunter College). There were a few speaking on process, and criticizing the DOT for inadequate public outreach in drafting the design. And several spoke about specific needs, like loading zones on particular blocks and banning left turns on some west-bound streets to preserve metered parking for businesses.

The overall tone of the meeting was respectful and upbeat, and hopefully it carries over to the full board meeting, where we'll need everyone who spoke last night (and more) to come out again and speak for the project.

The recommendation came with conditions, including education and outreach to cyclists and businesses and consideration for commercial parking and loading zone needs. The committee also wants all signals to be accessible to street users with physical impairments.

The plan will go to the full board -- where the project was previously rejected, based, at least in part, on the anti-gay argument -- on December 3. 

Image: NYC DOT 

Don't forget tonight's Manhattan CB4 hearing on the Eighth Avenue cycle track, where DOT will present plans to extend the protected lane next year from 14th to 23rd Street. With opponents expected to weigh in, pro-livable streets turnout is key. Here again are the specifics:

WHAT: Community Board 4 Transportation Planning Committee meeting

WHERE: Fulton Center Auditorium, 119 Ninth Ave. (between 17th and 18th Streets)

WHEN: 6:00 p.m.

If you can't make it to the meeting, you can e-mail comments to CB4 Assistant District Manager Renee Schoonbeek.

Photo: Clarence Eckerson