Pedestrian Infrastructure
Streetsblog Basics
De Blasio: Eastern Parkway Pedestrian Islands Posed Parade Safety Hazard
Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference yesterday that pedestrian islands on Eastern Parkway were removed because unnamed elected officials wanted to make room for West Indian Day Parade floats, which would have otherwise posed a risk to the public. The mayor indicated the median islands would not have been installed had the city realized they would interfere with the parade, which is held once a year.
September 1, 2016
De Blasio’s Office Ducks Responsibility for Erasing Eastern Pkwy Ped Islands
DOT removed pedestrian islands on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights yesterday, undoing years of street safety advocacy work on the part of local residents and community board members with no public process, and no one in the de Blasio administration is taking responsibility.
August 31, 2016
DOT, NYPD Remove New Eastern Parkway Ped Islands for Once-a-Year Parade
DOT and NYPD are destroying two concrete pedestrian islands the city installed less than a year ago on Eastern Parkway at the request of organizers of next weekend's West Indian Day Parade, the Post reports.
August 29, 2016
Wider Sidewalks Coming to Flushing’s Crowded Main Street
Main Street in Flushing gets more foot traffic than anywhere else in New York after Times Square, but its sidewalks are too narrow to handle all those people. So later this month, the city will begin expanding the sidewalks on four blocks of Main Street, Council Member Peter Koo, DOT, and the Department of Design and Construction announced this afternoon.
July 19, 2016
Basic Pedestrian Upgrades Coming to Conduit Blvd, But No Bike Infrastructure
Last month, DOT revealed its plan to make Conduit Boulevard less of a barrier between neighborhoods near the southeast Brooklyn-Queens border [PDF]. With better, more frequent pedestrian crossings, the project should make it easier for residents to get from one side of Conduit to the other, but the design doesn't include any bike infrastructure and leaves much of the high-speed geometry of the street intact.
July 15, 2016
Electeds Urge DOT to Make Safety Improvements PS 41 Parents Asked For
Local, state, and federal electeds are calling on DOT to make long-sought safety improvements in the West Village, including a protected bikeway on Seventh Avenue South.
July 7, 2016
Eyes on the Street: Bigger Sidewalk, Shorter Crossing at Riverside and 116th
A tipster sent this photo of the sidewalk expansion underway at the corner of Riverside Drive and W. 116th Street in Manhattan. (It's one of the elements in a DOT safety plan for Riverside that survived after the agency watered down the project at the behest of Community Board 9.)
June 17, 2016
To Improve Walking and Biking Across the Harlem River, DOT’s Thinking Big
There are 16 bridges linking Manhattan and the Bronx, but if you walk or bike between the boroughs, safe, convenient routes are still scarce. That could change if DOT follows through on ideas the agency released this spring to improve walking and biking access over the Harlem River bridges [PDF].
May 17, 2016
Ride the New Pulaski Bridge Bikeway With Streetfilms
Today was a milestone for traveling between Brooklyn and Queens: NYC DOT opened the Pulaski Bridge bike path to lots of cheers with a celebratory ride.
April 29, 2016