Traffic Calming
Streetsblog Basics
Harlem CBs Look to Weaken Safety Plan; Levine: DOT Should Move Ahead
A 10-block road diet proposed for Morningside Avenue in Harlem continues to face resistance from Manhattan Community Board 10. In the latest development, it seems the transportation committee chair of CB 10 is trying to convince neighboring Community Board 9, which contains the west side of the avenue, to amend its vote in favor of the road diet and fight against it instead. Meanwhile, Council Member Mark Levine says DOT has heard more than enough input from the community boards and urged the agency to move ahead with the project.
January 13, 2014
Levin to DOT: Deadly McGuinness Blvd Needs Traffic Calming, Speed Cams
A week after Nicole Detweiler was killed while walking on McGuinness Boulevard -- at least the third person to be struck and killed on the street in the last five years -- Council Member Steve Levin sent a letter to incoming Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg asking her to prioritize traffic calming and and speed cameras on the busy multi-lane road cutting through Greenpoint [PDF]:
January 7, 2014
Eyes on the Street: How Snow Makes the Case for Traffic Calming
Streetsblog asked and you delivered. Earlier we sent out a call for photos of snowy streets where drivers or plows had cleared a path while leaving much of the remaining the asphalt untouched. It's an easy way to visualize the opportunities for permanent sidewalk extensions like like neckdowns and bulb-outs -- but you have to snap a photo before it melts.
January 3, 2014
Send Us Your Pics of Snowy Neckdowns and (Un)Plowed Bike Lanes
How is the first snowstorm of the de Blasio era treating you?
January 3, 2014
DOT Plans Road Diet and Bikeway Upgrade on Deadly Section of Kent Avenue
Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 1's transportation committee unanimously recommended the board support a DOT project [PDF] to calm traffic on a deadly stretch of Kent Avenue between Clymer Street and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The project also upgrades a link in the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway to a two-way protected bike lane.
December 18, 2013
Harlem’s CB 10 Continues Assault on Safer Streets and Better Buses
According to Harlem's Community Board 10, there is apparently no such thing as a street redesign worth pursuing. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours Tuesday night, members of the board's transportation committee declined to support a road diet for Morningside Avenue, attacked a community-based street safety plan installed on Mount Morris Park West, and asked DOT to reconsider Select Bus Service on 125th Street again -- this time on the pretense that it would harm the elderly and disabled.
December 12, 2013
Fight Street Crime With Speed Bumps and Crosswalks
In Gabe Klein’s exit interview with Chicago Mag, the outgoing transportation commissioner predicted that in the next few years, cities will be paying more attention to the correlation between lawbreaking by drivers and other kinds of crime.
November 25, 2013
NYC DOT Shares Its Five Principles for Designing Safer Streets
Earlier this month, NYC DOT put out a major new report, Making Safer Streets [PDF], that collects before-and-after data from dozens of street redesigns and distills five key principles to reduce traffic injuries. The excitement of election week overshadowed the release, but this is an important document that livable streets supporters will want to bookmark. It's an accessible guide to how DOT approaches the task of re-engineering streets for greater safety.
November 21, 2013
Tonight: Manhattan CB 9 Set to Vote on Morningside Avenue Traffic Calming
A plan to slow drivers and provide safer crossings for pedestrians along Morningside Avenue in Harlem is on the agenda for Manhattan Community Board 9's full board meeting tonight. A positive vote would set the stage for CB 10, which also covers the project area and has a history of stalling livable streets projects, to take action.
November 21, 2013
DOT Cuts Community-Endorsed Harlem Pedestrian Space for Double Parking
A big new pedestrian space next to a busy Harlem park, installed last summer as part of a community board-backed traffic calming plan, is being scaled down by the agency that created it. Why the change? DOT says it’s responding to complaints that the original design created too much space for pedestrians, and not enough for double-parked drivers.
November 21, 2013