Lower East Side

"You can't control what you can't measure," the saying goes. So to get a better grip on street safety on Manhattan's East Side, Transportation Alternatives started by collecting better data about local traffic collisions and injuries. Last night, a group of Upper East Siders used that information to begin imagining what a safer neighborhood might look like.

NYCDOT unveiled a slate of pedestrian and bicycle improvements to the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 3 last night. Presenters asked for votes on two street safety projects: the construction of a planted center median on the Bowery between Canal and Division streets, and the addition of new curbside bike routes to improve connections to the Williamsburg Bridge.

"Not enough parking" is a pretty familiar refrain from residents, community boards, and elected officials across the entire city. According to the New York Times, Seward Park's co-op board has avoided that route and settled on a solution that can actually reduce the amount of space dedicated to the automobile: car-sharing. 

WNYC's Andrea Bernstein is reporting that plans for Bus Rapid Transit on First and Second Avenues include protected bike lanes but not physically separated bus lanes. Bernstein says the MTA would not allow the bus lanes to be separated from traffic:

According to an eyewitness account on NY1, the bus driver who killed a cyclist on Delancey Street yesterday afternoon was driving in reverse and did not respond to verbal warnings prior to the fatal crash:

WABC is reporting that a woman riding a bike was struck and killed by a school bus driver at the intersection of Delancey and Ludlow at around 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. Streetsblog has a request in with NYPD for more information. From ABC's aerial picture of the crash scene, it appears as though the fatal collision occurred on the east-bound side of Delancey.

A group of 19 elected officials has urged NYC DOT and the MTA to think big as the agencies design a Bus Rapid Transit corridor for First and Second Avenues. With the right configuration, the project could improve bus speeds dramatically, relieve crowding on the jam-packed Lexington subway line, and enhance safety for cyclists and pedestrians on a corridor that's currently roiled by wide rivers of traffic.

The biggest sustainable transportation story in New York right now is how DOT and the MTA plan to design Bus Rapid Transit corridors for the East Side of Manhattan. Will we get world-class avenues that attract more riders to the bus, relieve the jam-packed Lexington subway line, make cycling safer, and enhance the pedestrian environment? If so, the city will improve life for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and set a tremendous precedent in sustainable street design. If not, the standard for BRT corridors will be set low as the city starts rolling out up to a dozen more routes.

Eight people were injured this afternoon after a concrete truck careened into the sidewalk on the one-block diagonal linking Canal Street to the Bowery.