Streetsblog New York City

In the wake of the death of Dashane Santana, the 12-year-old girl killed by a minivan driver while she was crossing Delancey Street earlier this month, Lower East Side leaders are demanding safety improvements for the many pedestrians who cross this approach to the Williamsburg Bridge. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Dan Squadron and City Council Member Margaret Chin have each called on DOT to take action to prevent one more life from being taken by Delancey Street traffic.

A report from DNAinfo this morning lays out just how hostile the design of Delancey is to pedestrians. To cross Delancey at Clinton Street, where Santana was killed, pedestrians must traverse ten lanes of moving traffic in just 22 seconds.

That’s far less crossing time than pedestrians have at some of the city’s most notoriously dangerous intersections, which DNAinfo went out and measured. Reports DNAinfo’s Julie Shapiro:

For example, pedestrians crossing the eight-lane Queens Boulevard at Union Turnpike have a full 30 seconds to make it to the other side.

People traversing the six-lane Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 145th Street have 40 seconds, nearly double the crossing time on Delancey Street.

Other busy intersections with longer crossing times than Delancey Street include West Street at Albany Street, where pedestrians have 31 seconds to cross eight lanes; Houston Street at Essex Street, where pedestrians have 30 seconds to cross eight lanes; 12th Avenue at 23rd Street, where pedestrians have 34 seconds to cross six lanes; Ocean Parkway at Church Avenue in Brooklyn, where pedestrians have 45 seconds to cross 10 lanes; and Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn, where pedestrians have 60 seconds to cross four lanes.

DNAinfo’s report also includes the above video, which includes an interview with one of Santana’s schoolmates.

The area’s elected officials are primarily calling for pedestrian crossing times to be extended, a move that would surely make it easier to cross. Shrinking Delancey down from ten lanes should also be on the table; no matter how long the light is, that’s a wide street to ever cross safely.

DOT will present its plan for improving Delancey Street next Wednesday.

When Scott Stringer held his first transportation conference five years ago, streets like this didn't exist in NYC. Photo of First Avenue: NYC DOT

Times have changed since Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer hosted a conference on transportation reform in 2006. Five years ago, New York City appeared to be on the verge of shaking off the traffic-first approach to street engineering that had dominated city transportation policy for decades. Whispers were in the air about a push to tame city traffic and fund the transit system by putting a price on congestion-plagued streets. Since then, plenty of innovation has come to NYC streets, while traffic congestion and transit funding remain core challenges.

Last Friday, Stringer’s office organized a sequel, providing an opportunity to take stock of the last five years and recalibrate the transportation reform agenda going forward.

As it happened, former DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall made brief remarks at the outset of the event, hosted at John Jay College, in her capacity as a vice chancellor of CUNY. The moment was ripe with irony. Five years ago, then-commissioner Weinshall made a splash at the first Stringer transportation conference, calling for bus rapid transit, parking reform, safe routes to schools, and new public spaces. In the past two years, Weinshall’s dogged attempts to eradicate the Prospect Park West protected bike lane have, if nothing else, underscored why she had to leave the department before progress could be achieved on all the promises she made in 2006.

On Friday morning, the stage belonged to her successor, Janette Sadik-Khan, who highlighted DOT’s long list of achievements and innovations:

• Select Bus Service: Though the roll-out has been slower than originally anticipated and true bus rapid transit has eluded NYC DOT and the MTA, NYC now has three operating corridors of Select Bus Service, including 34th Street and First and Second Avenues in Manhattan and on Fordham Road in the Bronx, improving transit for tens of thousands of riders each day and attracting thousands more.
• Bicycling: In 2006, the city promised to add 200 new miles of bike lanes, a pledge that has since been fulfilled and surpassed. Now New York sets its sights not only on advancing the number of bike lane miles, but creating innovative street designs that lead the nation in making cycling accessible to a wide array of city residents.
• Parking: The DOT has piloted Park Smart, time-of-day variable pricing for parking spots in Park Slope and Greenwich Village and is on its way to expanding it into other parts of the city.
• Safe routes to schools: The city has a robust program to improve safety near 135 schools in all five boroughs.
• Public plazas: The big public space news of 2006 was that the city would add a ribbon of pedestrian space to the Times Square bowtie. No one could have predicted the city would add substantial public plazas at Times Square and Herald Square by reclaiming lanes from traffic.

For all the reasons to celebrate the progress on NYC streets, the conference also provided some sobering perspective on the state of the transit system.

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When Scottsdale, Arizona's speeding cameras were temporarily not being used for enforcement, the number of speeders jumped by over 1,000 percent. Image: John Petrozza

The Manhattan Borough Board passed a resolution last Thursday endorsing the use of automated cameras to catch speeding drivers. Earning the support of 10 Manhattan community boards and four City Council members — with no votes in opposition — the resolution was a strong show of support for better traffic enforcement on New York City streets.

As the borough board notes in the resolution, if a driver hits a pedestrian at 40 mph, the victim has a 70 percent chance of being killed, but is someone is struck at 30 mph, she has an 80 percent chance of surviving. With the NYPD stretched thin, camera enforcement is a proven way of consistently enforcing the speed limit.

The only Manhattan community board to abstain on Thursday was CB 9. All the others voted in support of the resolution (CB 3 was absent from the borough board meeting, but had previously voted in support of speeding cameras, according to Transportation Alternatives Safety Campaign Director Lindsey Ganson). No council members voted against or abstained from the resolution. The four voting members with representatives in attendance — Dan Garodnick, Jessica Lappin, Gale Brewer, and Robert Jackson — all voted in favor of the resolution.

Ganson singled out Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer for his influence in getting the borough board resolution passed. “Having his leadership really made all the difference,” she said. Stringer is a long-time supporter of stepped-up speeding enforcement, including through the use of cameras.

Outside Manhattan, Ganson said that the speed camera legislation has earned endorsements from Brooklyn CBs 7 and 9, Queens CB 8, Staten Island CB 2, and from committees at Bronx CB 4 and Staten Island CB 1.

These local shows of support could build momentum in Albany for legislation sponsored by Assembly Member Deborah Glick authorizing the use of speeding cameras, which is necessary for the city to install them, Ganson said. “Having both the borough board resolution and resolutions from individual community boards makes a huge difference when you have a meeting with a state senator or state assembly member,” she said. “It shows them that people in their own district, at the most local level of representation, support this.”

The text of the resolution and the roll call vote are available in full below:

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Extra-wide Delancey Street is one of the most dangerous roads in New York. One pedestrian and one cyclist have already been killed on Delancey this year. Image: Google Street View.

Delancey Street is one of the most dangerous roads in the city. Between 2008 and 2010 alone, 134 pedestrians and cyclists were hit by drivers on Delancey, according to Transportation Alternatives, and two were killed on the street this year.

Last week, Streetsblog reported on a new design for the base of the Williamsburg Bridge which routed cyclists off Delancey and onto calmer side streets. The implication, it seemed, was that the Department of Transportation wasn’t planning to make Delancey safer for cyclists and pedestrians, just less trafficked by them.

Elected officials on the Lower East Side, however, aren’t standing for the deadly status quo. On Monday, State Senator Daniel Squadron convened the first meeting of a new working group meant to improve safety in the area.

“For too long, Delancey has been the scene of far too many tragedies,” said Squadron in a statement. “Our working group is a much-needed step toward ending the cycle of danger. I’m confident that, together, we can find the short-term and long-term solutions to ensure a safe Delancey Street for all types of users.”

Joining Squadron were City Council Member Margaret Chin and representatives from the offices of Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Borough President Scott Stringer, Community Board 3, the Lower East Side Business Improvement District, and Transportation Alternatives. Staff from the Department of Transportation and the NYPD, which would have to implement any safety plan, were also in attendance.

The group will meet monthly to create a set of short-term and long-term changes to improve safety for all users of Delancey. “All solutions are still on the table,” said Squadron spokesperson Amy Spitalnick. In an e-mail, she listed a few possible solutions already being considered: “turning restrictions, stop lines, lengthening medians and crossing times, and a real solution for bikes (understanding that they’ll end up on Delancey no matter what).”

We’ll be reporting on the working group’s recommendations as they develop, but for now, it’s encouraging to see this broad and powerful coalition of elected officials and community leaders commit to a safe Delancey Street. Their statements, collected in a press release, are below:

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Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal press the DOT to install promised safety improvements at the dangerous intersection of Broadway, Amsterdam, and 71st Street on the Upper West Side. Behind them are neighborhood residents and members of Community Board 7. Photo: Noah Kazis

One year ago, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal stood on a traffic island in the middle of the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue, Broadway, and 71st Street to urge the Department of Transportation to install a slew of safety features at what they called “the bowtie of death.” That September, DOT put out a plan to expand sidewalks, add crosswalks and remove traffic lanes from both Broadway and Amsterdam.

This afternoon, Stringer and Rosenthal stood with Upper West Side community leaders on that same traffic island, urging DOT to finally put that safety plan into place. “Not next year, not during the fall, but now,” said Stringer.

Over the last two years, there have been 34 crashes at the intersection, according to Stringer’s office.

DOT had promised to make the safety improvements by this spring, Stringer said. The only change that’s been made so far are the installation of countdown timers on the walk signals. Knowing how much time you have to cross, he said, “is not the same as actually having more time.” Stringer explicitly called for each piece of the DOT safety plan to be installed, including the curb extensions, crosswalks, and the removal of traffic lanes.

“We shouldn’t be standing here today,” said Rosenthal. She’s been pushing for a safety fix for the intersection since 2007, when her office released a report on senior pedestrian safety in the neighborhood with Transportation Alternatives. The dangers of the crossing are so glaring that the Los Angeles Times led off a story on unsafe streets for the elderly with a discussion of that very corner, Rosenthal pointed out.

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Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer supports the idea of BRT along 34th Street, though you'd think quite the opposite from reading the Post. Photo: BP's Office via Flickr.

The Post’s unhinged crusade against the 34th Street Transitway appears to be bleeding over from the editorial page into news content. The paper ran a story yesterday strongly implying that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer opposes plans for separated bus lanes along 34th Street (headline: “Beep blasts 34th St. plan”), while in reality, Stringer seems to support the basic idea of the plan, urging mainly that DOT proceed with care. Here’s Stringer’s statement to us, in full:

The sluggish pace of vehicular traffic on 34th Street makes it a worthy candidate for Bus Rapid Transit service. BRT has the potential to significantly cut down on harmful traffic congestion — we’ve already seen bus travel times reduced by 20 percent along the new First and Second Avenue routes.

But before we redesign this crucial thoroughfare, we need to engage in an environmental review that will clarify potential impacts on the residents, workers and visitors of 34th Street. Loss of curbside access could hurt local businesses and many residents worry that major traffic reconfigurations could block emergency vehicle access to the East Side Hospital corridor.

I look forward to seeing the design that the Department of Transportation will present at the March 14th Community Advisory Committee meeting, and will continue to engage with DOT and the local community to encourage a plan that works for all.

The Post used a Stringer quote about slow speeds on 34th Street to suggest he thinks the street is too congested for improved bus service. In context, Stringer clearly says the opposite, that slow speeds are a reason to support Bus Rapid Transit.

Stringer’s comments obviously don’t offer unconditional support for DOT’s plans, and he does not explicitly endorse a physically separated busway. (It’s worth noting in response to his concerns that DOT is already proceeding with the environmental review process, and that Dan Biederman, the head of the 34th Street Partnership, thinks the businesses he represents will benefit from the plan if it meets some basic conditions.) But in general, this is the statement of someone who wants to see Bus Rapid Transit advance beyond Manhattan’s first taste of Select Bus Service on the East Side. The Post owes its readers a correction.

Upper West Side leaders presenting their recommendations to tweak the Columbus Avenue bike lane. Photo: Noah Kazis

Since Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has promised to take his approach to street redesigns, first put into place by the Columbus Avenue working group, borough-wide, Streetsblog decided to check in with him to see just what this process would look like.

The details are still being worked out. Stringer wasn’t yet sure, for example, whether future working groups would limit their surveys to businesses along the same side of the street as the bike lane, as was done on Columbus, or branch out to groups like residents or pedestrians visiting the area. Stringer did say he’d like to bring working groups in from the very beginning of the process rather than solely using them to troubleshoot already implemented redesigns.

Stringer argued this would ultimately enhance the transformation of the city’s streets, not slow it down. On Columbus Avenue, he said, only two of the businesses surveyed said they were opposed to the new protected bike lane. “There’s a real opportunity here to tone down some of the rhetoric and get things done,” said Stringer. “Having dialogue and even disagreements with communities about street design in the short run may be a big pain for the bureaucrats, but in the long run it’s going to mean a lot to evolving the street design of the city.”

Stringer called the DOT’s current approach too domineering. “The DOT philosophy has been it’s either my way or the highway,” he said. “It’s a system that has been too top-down, too in your face.”

When pressed on the fact that the Columbus Avenue bike lane had been the subject of public discussion since 2008 and community board debate since 2009, Stringer walked back his comments somewhat. “I think that the Columbus Avenue bike lane process has from the beginning been really positive,” he said. Stringer said that the Columbus Avenue process was better than others because of the shared outlook of the community and DOT. “They put DOT in a more comfortable position, because at the end of the day the goals were the same,” he argued.

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Scott Stringer after his State of the Borough address last night, in which he held up his approach to street redesign as an example of how city government should work. Photo: Jill Colvin/DNAinfo.

Could Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer parlay his approach to adjusting street redesigns into a successful mayoral bid? In his State of the Borough speech last night — which was widely interpreted as a preview of his 2013 pitch — Stringer held up his work on Columbus Avenue as a prime example of the “new partnership” he wants to build between government and an engaged citizenry.

Stringer repeatedly used the word “collaborative” in his speech last night, a quality that he implied the Bloomberg administration lacks. “There is a troubling view taking hold that to set high standards and achieve good outcomes, we must rely on a closed, top-down model of government,” he said. If New York had allowed that attitude in the past, he said, “there would be a highway through SoHo.”

Instead, Stringer suggested, “leadership is about constantly widening your inquiry and circle of concern.” He offered his work surveying local business owners along the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane as his first example of this strategy in action. “This new partnership will show us the way to support bike lanes that respect drivers, pedestrians and business owners, just like my office did on Columbus Avenue with Gale Brewer,” he said.

Stringer’s decision to include his approach to bike lanes in the State of the Borough and to tie it to a broader campaign theme suggests that the implementation of his working group model for street redesigns will remain a top priority in coming years.

Turning to issues beyond the control of the mayor, Stringer also called for the creation of a national or regional infrastructure bank to fund transportation projects based on merit. New York needs to reclaim its heritage as “a place that tackles big projects on time and on budget,” he urged. To that end, he’s holding a conference with Congressman Steve Israel on the infrastructure bank idea next month.

The Upper West Side is offering the city a lesson in what a mature and constructive response to bike lane growing pains looks like.

Upper West Side leaders present their recommendations to tweak the Columbus Avenue bike lane. Photo: Noah Kazis

While the new protected bike lane on Columbus Avenue received community support throughout the process, once installed many local businesses along the corridor began to complain that the design was making it harder to park or make deliveries along the east side of the street. In response, elected officials and the community board developed a working group, surveyed those businesses and developed a set of tweaks intended to make the street design work better, which DOT has quickly accepted. That collaborative process has now set the scene for a continued expansion of the bike network on the Upper West Side.

The Columbus Avenue Working Group, made up of Community Board 7, the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance, and the offices of Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Thomas Duane, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, and Council Member Gale Brewer, canvassed the blocks of Columbus between 77th and 96th streets, asking those businesses on the east side of the street what they thought of the bike lane. They announced the results of that survey at a press conference yesterday.

Of the 65 businesses they surveyed, 36 responded. And while that wasn’t a random sample, the results were pretty clear: 72 percent said the redesign had been bad for business. Of those negative responses, 86 percent identified reduced space for parking or loading as a concern and 53 percent said they’d had issues receiving deliveries.

No member of the working group, however, blamed the bike lane or called for a return to the more dangerous Columbus Avenue of the past. When asked by one reporter where things went wrong, Stringer answered, “I don’t think that things went wrong.” The only disconnect, he said, was that community consultation needed to be ongoing.

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Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, with Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh on the right, at today's presser. Photo: Ben Fried

With the new protected bike lane on Second Avenue as a backdrop earlier today, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer called for a stepped-up campaign to keep bike lanes clear of obstructions and show New Yorkers how to use their re-designed streets the right way. While many Manhattan streets have been re-engineered for improved safety, he said, enforcement and education aren’t keeping up.

Stringer staffers measured bike lane violations at 11 locations during the morning and evening rush between October 5 and October 7. Motorists blocking bike lanes, wrong-way cycling, and pedestrians wandering into the lane were the most widespread types of misuse. Out of 275 motor vehicles blocking bike lanes, 35 were part of the city’s fleet. Of those, 19 were cops.

On average, observers found that protected lanes were twice as likely to be clear of cars or trucks as painted lanes. But I think most people would agree that driving in a protected lane is at least twice as egregious. Among the blockages Stringer’s staff witnessed: police cars “in apparent non-emergency situations cutting through protected bike lanes to circumvent traffic stopped by a red light.”

The Borough President is recommending that NYPD crack down on bike lane-blocking motorists. He suggests putting traffic enforcement agents on bikes to patrol lanes and issue summonses to both motorists and cyclists. He also wants to see the TLC launch an awareness campaign to cut down on dooring. Stringer said he sent the report to NYPD and the TLC and hasn’t heard back from the agencies yet.

You can see the tally of bike lane violations and Stringer’s full set of recommendations in his report [PDF].

It’s going to be interesting to see how the press picks up this story. We’ve seen an awful lot of sensationalized coverage of the new bike lanes lately. Stringer’s report endorses the infrastructure — it’s mainly concerned with behavior and enforcement. Here’s how it’s being reported in the Daily News, NY1, the Observer, Transportation Nation, Gothamist, and — really, really terribly — on CBS2.