Urban Design

They are putting up a traffic light on my corner this week. It's one of the last intersections in Boerum Hill with four-way stop signs, at Bond and Wyckoff Streets, and I can't imagine who thought this was a good idea.

Cyclists and pedestrians somehow managing to get along with each other in Copenhagen.

Upon re-reading this morning's Times article on the new pedestrian countdown timers, I think it's worth taking a closer look at this statement DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall made at yesterday's pedestrian countdown press conference. As reported:

Yesterday, the Department of Transportation installed New York City's very first pedestrian countdown timer at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Kings Highway in Brooklyn. Gothamist, as usual, does a nice treatment of the story and roundup of the coverage.

Word has come down that DOT is now aiming to install its new Class III Shared Lane bicycle stencils on Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue before the end of November. The markings are an interesting innovation for New York City in that they direct motorists and cyclists to share the middle of the road as equals. Drivers aren't supposed to blast their horns at cyclists riding in the travel lane and cyclists aren't supposed to try to slip in and out of the door-zone between moving traffic and parked cars. The City, in other words, is telling cyclists: Go ahead and take the travel lane on this street. It is yours. What do you think?

Some reading ahead of tomorrow's big Transit-Oriented Development forum at NYU...

Before Enrique Peñalosa took over as Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, this thriving downtown plaza was a decrepit, crime-ridden, traffic-congested slum. Peñalosa cleared out the old shacks, banned private motor vehicles, launched the Transmilenio bus service, created the plaza, and returned this public space to his city's people. Granted, the neighborhood pictured above clearly lacks the First World "vibrancy" that we boast of here in New York City, but it seems pleasant enough, no?

For the last month, since I broke my ankle, New York has ceased to be the same place for me. At least in terms of getting around the city, the landscape has been dramatically transformed. Week 1 was spent in relative isolation at my parents house on Staten Island where they were nice enough to shuttle me around to the few places I need to go. I felt like I was 10 years old again -- though, at 10, I rode my bike all over hilly Staten Island, so you could say I had more independence then. The week after, I came back to Manhattan. Various people had sort of warned me, "Oh, how are you going to get around in Manhattan." I must say, at first I had my doubts about getting around town, but I was able to be much more independent than out in Suburban Staten Island.

March 1996: Residents in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Boerum Hill are tired of their streets absorbing overflow from the nearby Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Neighborhood groups have tried repeatedly to convince the City to protect the neighborhoods from rush hour through traffic. So far, the City has done nothing but promise further study. DOT officials have even criticized residents for not wanting to serve as doormats for Manhattan-bound motorists. Residents are now considering civil disobedience to protect their safety and quality of life....