Streetsblog New York City

The Dangerous by Design report on pedestrian fatalities from Transportation for America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership has been getting a lot of attention from the Streetsblog Network (and from the national press) this week. Researched by Michelle Ernst of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, the analysis in the report gives advocates a powerful tool when talking to local officials about the need for safer streets.

In Chicago, the Active Transportation Alliance rallied at an intersection where a pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run last month to demand safer conditions in that city. Five Chicagoans have died in the last month after being hit by drivers.

From the Active Transportation Alliance blog:

A Chicago sidewalk near the spot where Martha Gonzalez was killed by a hit-and-run driver October 13. (Photo: Steven Vance of Steven Can Plan)

Active Trans and Center for Neighborhood Technology called on our leaders today to make streets safer for pedestrians. Transportation for America, a national campaign, released a national report that ranks Chicagoland 41st in a list of the 50 most dangerous metropolitan areas in the country for pedestrians.

We gathered at 18th and Halsted streets this morning with representatives from Chicago Police and the 25th Ward to talk about street design and the laws that make it easier for drivers to disregard pedestrians.

Martha Gonzalez was a victim of fatal crash at that intersection last month and it was powerful to have her family there.

Tell your senator to support HB43! This legislation would require drivers to STOP for pedestrians. These deaths are preventable and we have solutions that have proven effective in other communities. Call on your leaders to act now!

The report ranked Louisville, Kentucky, as the seventh most dangerous metro area with more than 1 million residents. Network member Broken Sidewalk notes that this is in spite of a relatively high rate of spending on pedestrian infrastructure:

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These are enlightened times for New York City's local streets. The city is building sidewalk extensions, protected bike lanes, and better busways. But at the state DOT -- the agency that controls the vast majority of New York's federal transportation funding -- much of the playbook still comes straight from the Robert Moses era. At a pair of public meetings yesterday, representatives from the state DOT's Region 11 office presented plans to jam more space for cars through the dense urban fabric of the southwest Bronx, just as the area appears poised to construct new housing, parks, and retail.

The DOT proposal calls for bigger ramps at the 138th Street exit and the construction of "auxiliary lanes" along a segment of the Major Deegan Expressway parallel to the Harlem River. If built, the project would expand both the capacity of the Deegan and its physical footprint. Construction would necessitate the seizure of 14 properties through eminent domain. Region 11 spokesperson Adam Levine pegged the cost at $200 to $250 million. 

As the Daily News reported earlier this week, local residents fear the highway widening would also stifle redevelopment plans for this area of the Bronx and cut off waterfront access to the Harlem River. As part of the city's South Bronx Initiative, 1,500 units of new housing, 220,000 square feet of retail, and five acres of new parkland are slated for the immediate neighborhood around the state DOT project, said Walter Houston, head of the Local Development Corporation of the West Bronx. The bigger ramp would effectively block off pedestrian access to the redeveloped waterfront.

"It’s a wall between the community and the waterfront, which would only contribute to the deterioration of the waterfront," said Houston. "DOT is proposing a narrow tunnel through this wall, and that's it." A pedestrian tunnel under a highway exit ramp. Sound like an appealing way to walk to the new riverfront park?

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With the support of DOT, Community Board 2 and the local block association, a parking-protected bike lane could be in the works for Carmine Street in the West Village. But despite prior approval of the plan, it will again be a topic of discussion at tonight's CB 2 transportation committee meeting.

In late 2007, a bike lane was added to Carmine as part of DOT's Lower Manhattan crosstown bike route. In response to merchant complaints over the loss of delivery access, a community-generated proposal was put forward to convert Carmine to one-way eastbound with parking on both sides and a parking-protected bike lane, a la Grand Street. Though the plan subsequently drawn up by DOT [PDF] has been approved by CB 2 and the Carmine Street Block Association, it remains in limbo due to what has been described as a "one-man crusade" to derail it. For a taste of the histrionics fueling the opposition, click here.

The CB 2 transpo committee has already endorsed the protected lane and tends to embrace street designs that are most beneficial to vulnerable street users. Still, some who have shepherded the plan for two years now fear a "compromise" that could result in the conversion of Carmine to one-way with a conventional Class 2 unprotected lane, rather than the configuration that has brought marked safety benefits (and similar ill-founded controversy) to Grand Street. Needless to say, the more friendly voices heard tonight, the better.

WHAT: Manhattan Community Board 2 Transportation Committee meeting
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 6:45 p.m.
WHERE: NYU Languages and Literature Building, 19 University Place (at W. 8th St.), Rm. 102

Last October, DOT installed Inwood's first bike shelter on Dyckman/200th Street at Broadway. A little over a week ago, it disappeared without a trace.

According to a blurb in the Manhattan Times, a spokesperson with DOT said the shelter was removed due to lack of use. Though there are three "U" racks on the same block, this doesn't make a lot of sense in light of agency efforts to encourage cycling by making bike parking more accessible -- especially considering the relatively short span of time the shelter had been in place.

One rumor swirling about the neighborhood is that a Dyckman Street restaurateur desirous of sidewalk cafe space had a hand in the shelter's banishment, as it was situated in front of his newest location, now under construction. But even if that were true -- we've seen no evidence to support such a theory -- it's hard to imagine DOT would uninstall a piece of infrastructure at the request of a single business owner.

Community Board 12 wasn't consulted on the change, transportation committee chair Mark Levine told Streetsblog.

Given Inwood's general lack of bike racks, and with livable streets advocates about to embark on the third year of their campaign for safer cycling conditions on Dyckman, we're extremely curious as to why this shelter was taken away. As of this writing, however, two queries to DOT have brought no response.

Yesterday, as I was scrolling through the Streetsblog Network feed, I came upon this headline from network member Sprawled Out: "We Americans are all infrastructure -- and no people."

I clicked through right away, because that line had so much resonance for me.

The post turned out to be a link to a story from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel by Richard L. Birch. He's a business writer who lives in Milwaukee but also has an apartment in Almería, Spain, where his wife's family is from.

Here's what he writes about re-entry into his native country:

Photo: Sprawled Out

Arriving home from Spain, we drove through Milwaukee from Mitchell International Airport, and the eerie calm of sealing ourselves behind car windows settled over us; the "carness" of our life here spread out like a gray pall all around us.

Instead of people, conversation, shopping, eating and attending to business on the hoof, we were surrounded by access roads, parking lots, highways and bridges until we eventually passed under the shadow of the hulking three-story garage whose gloomy, and empty, cavern overshadows our magnificent art museum.

We Americans are all infrastructure -- and no people...

What's the cost for living our American way? It's not just the thousands of dollars for the second car, insurance and gas. We also have to support a lake of concrete around us -- and gas, electric and sewer lines to stretch out past the near-vacant belts beyond the older suburbs. Property taxes in Almería on our condo are one-twelfth our taxes in Milwaukee, even though the value of the two homes is roughly the same.

One-twelfth. Oh, and they throw in free health insurance.

It's a powerful piece of writing. Click through yourself to read it all.

Is there hope that momentum is shifting away from this kind of lonely landscape? Over at NRDC Switchboard, Kaid Benfield writes about a new report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute on the prospects for the real estate market in the United States. The report, Benfield writes, projects a gloomy future for the kind of sprawling development that Birch drove through after landing in Milwaukee.

Benfield writes:

In a section titled "markets to watch," the report also advises investors to favor convenient urban office, retail, entertainment and recreation districts where there are mass transit alternatives to driving. Investors are advised to shy away from, among other things, fringe areas "with long car com­mutes or where getting a quart of milk means taking a 15-minute drive."

Related: a post from brand-new network member American Dirt on spreading brownfields and shuttered gas stations (h/t to The Urbanophile's Aaron Renn).

This year the New York City Department of Transportation measured a 26 percent jump in commuter cycling. Coming on the heels of 2008's unprecedented 35 percent growth, that puts the total two-year increase at a whopping 66 percent.

Much of the growth in cycling can be attributed to the installation of 200 miles of bike routes in the past three years, including innovative facilities like the cycletracks on Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, which separate car traffic from cyclists. Safer streets get more people to ride, who encourage their friends to ride, and more riders on the road means cyclists are more visible and safer. The virtuous circle is in effect here in New York.

With triple the number of cyclists on the road since 2000, we thought now would be a good time to get a reality check from riders: How's it going out there? Overwhelmingly, folks we interviewed said it is getting quite crowded on New York's streets and bridges. Good thing bikes aren't space hogs!

Here's one indicator that's looking pretty recession-proof: New York City bike commuting shot up 26 percent in 2009, according to data released today by the Department of Transportation. The increase marks the second straight year of robust cycling growth in the city. Last year bike commuting rose 35 percent.

The new counts bolster the evidence linking safer bikeways to increased cycling. New York's bike network expanded significantly in the past 12 months, including protected paths on Broadway, Eighth Avenue, the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge, Allen Street, and Kent Avenue in Williamsburg.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan touted these improvements in announcing the new stats. "Cycling in the city continues growing rapidly as our bike network expands and becomes safer," she said in a statement.

The agency measures bike commuting by counting cyclists crossing 50th Street on the Hudson River Greenway, riding over the four East River bridges, and entering and exiting the Staten Island Ferry at Whitehall Terminal. Notably, cyclists riding across 50th Street on the avenues are not included in the count.

DOT staff tallied an average of 15,495 cyclists crossing this zone on weekdays between April and October this year. On one day in August, the bike count reached a peak of 18,223 cyclists. (For more on the data and methodology behind the bike count, read this PDF.)

Stay tuned for a Streetfilm from Clarence on this promising development. It's going to drop early tomorrow.

It's not news that a half-century of transportation spending to accommodate the automobile has made the typical American city hazardous and hostile to people on foot. But it's shocking how we still devote so few resources to correcting those mistakes. A new report released today by a coalition of advocacy groups, including Transportation for America and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, quantifies current funding disparities and the cost in human lives. From T4A:

In the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along a street in their community. More than 43,000 Americans -- including 3,906 children under 16 -- have been killed this decade alone. This is the equivalent of a jumbo jet going down roughly every month, yet it receives nothing like the kind of attention that would surely follow such a disaster.

Counterintuitive as it may be, "Dangerous by Design" also finds that, when it comes to investing in pedestrian-friendly streets, New York has little room to boast. Here are local stats culled from the report, issued in a joint statement from TSTC, Transportation Alternatives, the Regional Plan Association and TWU Local 100:

• 22.5 percent of total traffic deaths in New York State are pedestrians
  
• 31 percent of total traffic deaths in the NYC metropolitan area are pedestrians
  
• Only 1 percent of New York State federal transportation funds are spent on pedestrian infrastructure, an average of $0.73 per person
  
• New York State ranks 44th in the nation for federal spending on walking and biking
  
• The NYC metropolitan area receives only $0.61 per person in federal funds for pedestrian and bike facilities, well below the meager $1.39 spent per person for metro areas nationwide

Advocates are calling on Governor Paterson and the New York State Legislature to designate 10 percent of federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and 10 percent of federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funding for pedestrian safety; to enact a statewide complete streets policy; to increase funding for Safe Routes to School and Safe Seniors programs; and to create a statewide Safe Routes to Transit program.

"From 2005 to 2008, New York has received $5.6 billion in federal transportation funds," reads the statement. "In the same amount of time there have been 1,215 preventable pedestrian deaths."

You can download "Dangerous By Design" in its entirety here. Elana Schor has more on the report's national implications at Streetsblog Capitol Hill.

Following Tuesday's citywide elections, Streetsblog asked leading advocates and experts to lay out their ideas for the next four years of New York City transportation policy. What should the Bloomberg administration try to accomplish? Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and editor of its excellent blog, Mobilizing the Region, kicks things off with today's installment.

The headlines after last week's mayoral contest weren't kind to the winner. "NY Voters Seen Wanting More Humble Bloomberg," proclaimed Reuters. "Bloomberg Sweats Out Third Term," wrote the Post. The incumbent's slim margin of victory points to two major takeaways from campaign season in New York City: 1) Mayor Bloomberg is seen as out of touch with everyday New Yorkers, yet 2) was reelected, grudgingly, because the electorate thinks he is doing a decent job.

First up: Publicly support the removal of the Sheridan Expressway as a green jobs program.

Over the next four years, the mayor has an opportunity to rebuild the public's trust and reverse the perception that he doesn't care about the average citizen. It's in his best interest to spend significant time on the latter. A wealthy, assertive politician can seem arrogant to voters in the best of times, and third terms are notoriously difficult for elected officials. If the mayor wants to create a legacy that builds on his existing record, he will have to prove that his policies, including transportation, help working New Yorkers. Here are four ways to help get him there, starting with the most specific.

First up: Publicly support the removal of the Sheridan Expressway as a green jobs program. This highway is a redundant, little used stub running through the Hunts Point community of the South Bronx. For nearly a decade, advocates in the South Bronx River Watershed Alliance (including the Pratt Center, Nos Quedamos, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, The Point, Sustainable South Bronx, and my organization, Tri-State Transportation Campaign) have called on the New York State DOT to remove the highway. Doing so would create 700 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs, improve access to the Bronx River, and open up 28 acres for parks and affordable housing.

Bulldozing acres of parks for the new Yankee Stadium gave the impression that the mayor was more willing to help out developers than the average Bronx resident. Removing the Sheridan would help pay back that debt, and fit naturally with the Mayor's long-term sustainability agenda, PlaNYC 2030.

Next, the Mayor should commit to boosting New York City's funding for public transit.

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This morning on the Streetsblog Network, Smart City Memphis lays out what they call "Downtown's case against City Hall for abandonment." The post details how politicians systematically pulled financial and planning resources out of the city's core, even as they touted the importance of a vibrant city center for Memphis's future:

Money in Memphis has gone to big projects like the FedEx forum, not to improving the downtown's streetscapes.

At the precise time that city elected officials were delivering uplifting rhetoric about the importance of downtown to the overall economic health of the region, to attracting and retaining talent and to its role as “welcome mat” to Memphis, it was engaged in a financial sleight of hand that largely set downtown adrift.…

[W]e have a proposal. We think that the Center City Commission should invite teams -- architects, residents, urbanists, young professionals and others – that would survey downtown and send in recommendations to Center City Commission.

After all, we walk the streets. We know downtown block by block. We know every special spot and every ugly wart. We know every unsightly sign put up by MATA, we know every landscaping mistake and we know every place trash accumulates.

Why not appoint us as special hit squads that’ll issue reports on the state of downtown and recommendations for improving things? We would demand downtown improvements, a design ethos and for regular reports that could be shared with elected officials on what has to be done for the city’s core to be healthier and more competitive.

I visited Memphis last spring and was struck by its unrealized potential -- both in terms of downtown infrastructure and human resources. Several people I met talked about how much they love the city and want to stay there -- but how they are being forced out by a lack of opportunity.

Smart City's post is an indication of how much potential energy there is in that place. How amazing would it be if City Hall could have the foresight and humility to take their suggestion and tap some of it?

More from around the network: DC Bicycle Transportation Examiner wants to make the point that bicycles are not just a white thing. Let's Go Ride a Bike talks about the natural attractiveness of bicycles. And The Infrastructurist reports on another massive construction project in China -- one that will destroy 10,000 homes in central Beijing.

Ever wonder how the oil extraction industry affects indigenous peoples and environments in places like Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela and the U.S.? Peter Maass' engaging, detailed reporting in "Crude World" answers that question. This week, he is swinging through his hometown for three back-to-back speaking engagements at the Strand, CUNY and Revenue Watch. Be sure to catch one of them. Here's more of what's happening on this week's super-packed calendar:

• Monday: Just announced on Friday -- The New York State DOT is giving a presentation and taking public comments on the rehabilitation of the Major Deegan Expressway in the South Bronx. The rehab project includes an exit ramp extension that would affect pedestrian access to the Harlem River waterfront. Hearing runs from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Presentations at 4:30 and 7:00.
• Tuesday and Thursday: NYC DOT will hold public hearings on ways to reduce traffic congestion on Brooklyn's Church Avenue and White Plains Road in the Bronx. 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Barnard College hosts a panel entitled "Rights of Way: A New Politics of Movement in NYC." "With the recent turn to pedestrian zones, bike lanes and greenways in New York and in many cities around the world," the flyer notes, "there is a growing sense that a new kind of urbanism is possible, one no longer dominated by the culture and politics of the automobile." 6:30 p.m. Also Thursday: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other elected officials host a town hall forum on idling tour buses and charter buses on the West Side. 7 p.m.
• Friday: The Open Planning Project hosts a workshop on using Web 2.0 for wider citizen involvement in civic life. How can new opportunities be leveraged for use in city planning? What are the emerging technologies that will make this possible? What are the bureaucratic, logistical, or social issues that need to be addressed in considering these ideas? 12:30 p.m.
• Saturday: The Brooklyn Waldorf School holds its annual Scoothathon in Prospect Park (10 a.m.) and the New York Transit Museum is offering a tour of the Brooklyn Broadway Elevated -- the J line (11 a.m.).
• Next Monday, Nov. 16: Hunter College is holding a day-long conference on New York City's environmental challenges. Among the speakers: Owen Gutfreund, who will talk about transportation policy.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Advocates and volunteers working for protected bike paths on the East Side, flush from last month's highly encouraging Community Board 8 vote, delivered more than a thousand handwritten letters yesterday to City Hall, supporting protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues. Keep an eye on this story. It's a big one.

As DOT and the MTA flesh out plans for Bus Rapid Transit along the M15 route, dedicated space for both buses and cyclists on First and Second is within reach. Rarely does the opportunity present itself to make such huge strides toward less congested, more livable streets. New York only has one shot to get it right.

"We're really hoping to put a finger on the scales, and push for fully-protected bike lanes while the DOT and East Side communities work on improving the M15 corridor," said Transportation Alternatives' Wiley Norvell. "To not address the huge demand for biking on First and Second avenues, something the DOT pledged to do as step number one in its 1997 Bicycle Master Plan, would be a huge missed opportunity."

TA counted 3,356 cyclists on the First and Second Avenue corridor during a 12-hour stretch last month, a figure that far exceeds the DOT's 2008 screenline count at 59th Street, Norvell said. All those cyclists are a fearless bunch -- braving rivers of traffic and some of the city's most intimidating cycling conditions. Imagine how many more New Yorkers would bike down the avenues if they didn't feel they were risking life and limb.

Norvell says TA staff and volunteers have been gathering letters from East Harlem down to the Lower East Side in support of protected bike infrastructure. Yesterday's delivery put hundreds of letters in the hands of East Side electeds, including City Council Members Rosie Mendez and Daniel Garodnick.

"The meetings were very positive," said Caroline Samponaro, director of TA's bike program. "Their staff agreed that we shouldn't redesign First and Second avenues without including provisions for cyclists and pedestrians."

Active support from East Side representatives will be critical as plans for the corridor advance. "Every project is about political will," said Samponaro. "What these projects need is political leadership from the electeds. They need to be the spokespeople for their constituents."

The optimal re-design of First and Second avenues would give buses and cyclists "space that allows them to travel safely and efficiently without having to compete with each other," she added. "These corridors can serve the non-driving majority and set a standard for how other major avenues will be treated."