Eyes on the Street
Streetsblog Basics
Status Report: Sands Street Bike Path Ready Next Week
There's a fresh coat of asphalt on the Sands Street bike path, and guys on the construction crew say this long-awaited approach to the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge should officially open for riding next week. Still to come: pavement markings and fencing.
July 23, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Bike Traffic on Eighth = Rolling Goldmine
Thanks to BicyclesOnly for posting this shot from yesterday morning's commute to the Streetsblog Flickr pool. By my count, we've got six people riding bikes here on a one-and-a-half block stretch of the Eighth Avenue protected path, with two or three others farther back, in the shade. As far as I can tell, everyone is riding in the right direction. If I was an Eighth Avenue merchant, I'd start agitating for more bike parking in front of my store.
July 16, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Sands Street Bike Path Almost Rideable
The long-awaited Sands Street bike path, a protected approach to the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge which took a few years longer than expected to go through New York City's construction bureaucracy, looks tantalizingly close to completion these days. It's not there yet, but you can start to picture how this critical addition to the city's bike network will appear when finished. The Department of Design and Construction tells us the whole thing should be paved by the end of the week, weather permitting, and the path should officially open to cyclists next week, after some fencing is added.
July 15, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Risking Life and Limb for Greenway Access
Last Friday afternoon my wife and I walked the Hudson River Greenway from Morningside Heights north toward home in Inwood. It was nice and warm out, and after a while we wanted water, so just south of the George Washington Bridge we decided to head over to Broadway, where we could stop for a beverage before catching a train the rest of the way. We exited the Greenway at 165th Street in Washington Heights, a route neither of us had taken before. After crossing the pedestrian bridge over the train tracks and taking a trail under the Henry Hudson Parkway and through the woods, this is what we found.
July 6, 2009
Independence Day Special: The Freedom to Sit
This was the scene at Herald Square yesterday afternoon. It's full of people doing what the Times' Susan Dominus finds so un-New York: sitting down. Some of these loafers are actually putting their feet up, right in the heart of our fast-paced, cutthroat city. It's like they've never even seen The Sweet Smell of Success.
July 2, 2009
Eyes on the Street: First Weekend of Car-Free Summer Streets
A reader sends in these shots of weekend car-free street activity. Above, the crowd takes in a performance from the Fourth Arts Block "Meet the Street" series on East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue in Manhattan; below is a scene from the first Saturday of Williamsburg Walks, taken at North 6th and Bedford.
June 8, 2009
Car-Free Space Is an Instant Hit on Broadway
Here's the view from 45th Street looking south at about 1 pm today, about 30 minutes after the city Dept. of Transportation closed Broadway to motor vehicle traffic in Midtown. It's obviously way too soon to judge how this experiment is working but today, at least, car-free Broadway appears to be a huge hit.
May 24, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Bike to Work Day NYC
Here are some early pics from this morning's Bike to Work festivities, courtesy of Transportation Alternatives. Don't forget to tag your own shots for our Flickr pool, and stay tuned for Streetfilms coverage.
May 15, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Yarn by the Meter
The Montague Street Business Improvement District along with DOT's Urban Art Program today unveiled the "69 Meters" public art project. Hand-knitted cozies will adorn all the street's parking meters through mid-June. Says the BID:
May 14, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Madison Square Ped Space Invaded
"Have placard-bearing drivers begun their own reclaiming of reclaimed public space?"
May 11, 2009