Midtown
Streetsblog Basics
DOT, MTA Launch 34th Street Select Bus Service Today
SBS lanes are the first phase of the 34th Street Transitway concept
September 15, 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
Does Summer Streets Need a “Fast Lane”?
This weekend, on the second Saturday of Summer Streets, the first thing my wife Jennifer and I noticed as we ascended the ramp from 42nd Street to Park Avenue was the quiet. I mentioned to Jennifer that I had come across a blog comment likening the scene to the New York portrayed in the post-apocalyptic Will Smith movie "I Am Legend," minus the super-human zombies. Plot holes notwithstanding, that didn't do it justice. The absence of engine noise and incessant honking didn't seem eerie, or even surreal. Just blissful.
August 18, 2008
Eyes on the Street: Summer Streets Gallery #2
Welcome to the second installment of our Summer Streets photo tour. This pic comes courtesy of BicyclesOnly, who says Park Avenue South is "one of the more dangerous roadways to bicycle on in Manhattan. Without the cars, it's a playground for these two."
August 12, 2008
DOT Takes Steps to Improve Ped Safety Near Park Avenue Tunnel
Last night, DOT closed both lanes of the Park Avenue Tunnel to prepare for the construction of safety upgrades at Park and 33rd Street. That's the intersection where southbound cars exit the tunnel, creating a dangerous blend of speeding vehicles and poor sight lines. From 1995 to 2005, 156 pedestrians and 10 cyclists were struck by cars there, according to CrashStat.
August 4, 2008
Eyes on the Street: 34th Street Runs Red With Paint
Streetsblog's Brad Aaron -- on vacation in exotic, uh, Midtown -- sends this pic of a newly-striped 34th Street bus lane, looking east from Eighth Avenue. Red lanes on each side of 34th are part of the first phase of improvements to what is intended to become the city's first "transitway." Another witness says the bus lane on the north side of the street hasn't been striped yet.
August 4, 2008
You Don’t Ride a Bike to a Corporate Office Building
New York cyclists know that corporate office buildings are often not the friendliest places for bike commuters. Lynette Chang, a.k.a. "The Gal From Down Under," has been recording her attempts to enter Manhattan office towers with her folding bike. In this video she dresses up nicely, folds her bike neatly and tries to visit the PricewaterhouseCoopers building in Midtown. She is rebuffed by a meathead building manager who insists, "you don't ride a bike to a corporate office building" and, leave it outside, since "nobody steals bikes."
January 23, 2008
The One Carbon Tax That Couldn’t
Assembly Member Richard Brodsky, archenemy of Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, is urging the mayor to seek a carbon tax instead. So he said, following Monday's meeting of the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, as reported by Streetsblog and confirmed by at least one other observer.
December 20, 2007
NY1 Snap Poll: How to Make NYC Safer For Cyclists?
A week after two cyclists were killed in midtown, NY1 wants to know, in its very limited multiple choice format, what needs to be done to make New York City safer for cyclists. Your options are:
December 13, 2007
