Bicycle Infrastructure
Streetsblog Basics
The Tease Is Over: Greenway Link Delivers Delayed Gratification
We received two reports last night that the West Harlem Piers bike path -- a critical link in the Hudson River Greenway -- is finally open after several months of puzzling delay. (NYCEDC informed Streetsblog last week that the hold up was indeed due to problems securing materials for a safety rail.) Now the construction fence is down, and, as you can see in these photos from reader Paula Froke, cyclists are enjoying the unbroken stretch of greenway.
October 21, 2008
Study Confirms: Safer Bike Routes Get More People Riding
How effective are bike lanes at enticing people to ride? Portland State University professor Jennifer Dill has been looking into that question for more than a year, and her research is starting to get some attention. Using GPS trackers to map more than 1,700 bike trips, Dill found that about half of all bike travel occurs on dedicated infrastructure like bike lanes or bike boulevards, even though such routes comprise only eight percent of Portland's street network.
October 20, 2008
Jan Gehl Says San Francisco Must be Sweet to Pedestrians and Cyclists
It's a good day in a city's urbanist evolution when Jan Gehl comes to town, and now San Francisco can add itself to the growing list of cities around the world that have embraced his people-first approach to urban design and planning.
October 8, 2008
Manhattan Bridge Bike Path Mired for Years in Construction Bureaucracy
The Sands Street bike path, a physically protected approach to the Manhattan Bridge, has languished behind schedule for years, held up in the city's construction bureaucracy. The project serves as a prime illustration that livable streets hinge not just on DOT, but on other, more obscure city agencies as well.
September 30, 2008
Budnick v. Anderson on “Talk of the Nation” This Afternoon
Transportation Alternatives' Noah Budnick will be on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" this afternoon at 3 p.m. EST. He'll be debating Rob Anderson, the one-man wrecking crew who filed the 2006 environmental impact law suit that stopped San Francisco from building out its citywide bicycle network.
August 26, 2008
Leaving Cars Behind, Seniors Find Streets Inhospitable
A recent poll conducted by AARP finds that Americans over the age of 50 are cutting down on car trips due to rising gas prices, but are finding public infrastructure, or lack thereof, to be an obstacle.
August 20, 2008
Eyes on the Street: A Walk Down Broadway Boulevard
After Summer Streets wrapped up last Saturday, I headed over to Times Square to check out the progress on DOT's "Broadway Boulevard" project. The new street geometry and surfacing are mostly in place, while plantings and furniture have yet to arrive. The bike lane was also fully functional, making this pedicab ride across 41st Street a lot more pleasant than it would have been a few months ago.
August 19, 2008
Wiki Wednesday: Bike Boxes
This StreetsWiki entry is rounding into encyclopedic form quite nicely. Andy Hamilton, DianaD (who also brought us the VMT entry last week) and Streetsblog's own Aaron Naparstek have been piecing together a detailed look at the history and effectiveness of bike boxes:
July 30, 2008
Eyes on the Street: A Sign of Respect
Looks like there's a new preferred bike route from the Brooklyn Bridge to the west side of Manhattan, and DOT's signs and markings division wants you to know about it. The sign in this shot, snapped by Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson at the foot of the bridge, looks more like what you'd see from behind a windshield than from beneath a bike helmet.
June 6, 2008
DOT Previews Big Plans at Greenway Summit
The Ninth Avenue cycle track will be extended 10 blocks north to 33rd St.
May 29, 2008