The West Side Spirit has published a glowing article about our recent win in bringing a bike lane to West 106th Street, and about the UWS Streets Renaissance generally. Check it out here. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Even the Wall Street Journal is on board with the DOT’s new Summer Streets program. Check out what they had to say about the value of car-free streets:
“On three August Saturdays this summer, New Yorkers will be able to ride their bikes all the way from the BrooklynBridge to Central Park – a 6.9-mile route - without a single cabbie honking at them or absent-minded driver smashing them into a parked car.
This rare opportunity comes courtesy of the newly-launched “Summer Streets” program. For six hours, a major route running north and south along the island of Manhattan will be closed to traffic and opened up to walkers, cyclists, even outdoor yoga classes hosted by the gym chain Crunch Fitness.
That should provide temporary solace for many New York bike commuters who fight a daily, pitched battle with drivers who often don’t see or don’t like them.
The idea, says transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, is to get more New Yorkers thinking about using their 6,000 miles of roads for something other than cars. “We’re trying to get people to envision their streets differently,” she says. “You’ve got 600,000 people within a 20-minute bike ride of lower Manhattan.” But most of those people cram into subway cars, cabs, and even their own cars just to drive a couple of miles.
That’s because until now, she says, New York has done little to curb its car culture, and accommodate bikes and other modes of transportations on its roads. “That’s the one part of New York City that has undergone zero change,” says Ms. Sadik-Khan, who took over as transportation commissioner a year ago.
The star-studded press conference got all the attention, but Summer Streets is only a small part of the Ms. Sadik-Khan’s plan to “green” the city by reducing car traffic and increasing walking and biking for transportation. She says the police department is stepping up enforcement of cars double-parked in bike lanes, and new designated bikeways are planned before the end of the mayor’s final term in office, which ends in 2009.
Last Wednesday, the students of P.S. 87 took turns recording the speeds of vehicles traveling down Columbus Avenue. Armed with a radar gun, a speed display-board and an innate feeling of safe and dangerous, these kids were seeing first hand the common sense of livable streets.
Part of a groundbreaking new Livable Streets Education program being piloted at several NYC schools, the students were engaged in more than just the speed gunning exercise. Members of the Kindergarten through 5th grade classes conducted surveys of the streets surrounding their school on West 78th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Developed in collaboration with The Open Planning Project, the project asks kids to examine factors such as parking, signage, visibility and enforcement in order to better understand why their streets work (or don’t) the way they do.
In the coming weeks the Westside Collaborative School, among others, is set to undertake its own survey, speed gun included, and kids around the city will begin to learn that they shouldn’t have to walk in fear. Speeding drivers be warned – you may catch an earful over the dinner table tonight.
UWS Streets Renaissance member, Columbia Urban Planning graduate student, intrepid volunteer and all-around advocacy all-star Inbar Kishoni was perusing a copy of Marie Claire recently when she noticed that its editorial staff had judged Bike to Work Day “iffy” in its monthly feature “The Good, The Bad and the Iffy”. Not one to take such an obvious and egregious misjudgment sitting down, she penned this letter, which she’s been good enough to share with us:
“I am writing to express my disappointment in your classification of Bike to Work Day as “iffy” in “The opinionated guide to May” article. The dependence of the United States on the automobile has led to an overuse of limited resources and an abundance of health concerns that range from asthma to obesity. Bike to Work Day is meant to encourage healthy, environmentally sustainable, and affordable forms of transportation. Granted some people live too far from work to bike, but this day is meant to encourage people to consider the alternatives.
In publishing a magazine you are in the position to motivate people to make decisions that are healthy for themselves and for the planet. Your position comes as a surprise to me since you do so much to encourage humanitarian causes. Cycling provides mobility to those who cannot afford or are not yet old enough to drive an automobile. I hope that you will consider your influence before writing off something like this in the future.
Inbar Kishoni, New York, NY”
Well played, Inbar! Here’s hoping someone over there is listening…
First and foremost, thanks again to the over 40 people who showed up at Community Board 7 to express their support for the DOT’s proposal to install buffered bike lanes on W. 106th St., which will provide a crucial crosstown park-to-park linkage. In the wake of that first meeting local stakeholders, including the Jewish Home and Hospital and Greenmarkets, have been taking part in ongoing discussions about how to best implement the bike lane plan without disrupting residents daily lives.
Best of all, the DOT is moving forward with the plan, and are projecting a completion date of June, 2008. In other words: in less than two months! This is a fantastic example of a community coming together behind a beneficial project, and the city listening. Moving forward, there is another meeting of the CB7 Transportation Committee on May 13th, where the proposal is expected to pass without any resistance.
The most important date to mark in your calendar is June 3rd. This is when the full board of CB7 will meet to hear the proposal, and vote yes or no. It is crucial that we turn out big support at this meeting, so that CB7 and the DOT will know that this is a plan which the community supports. The details are below, hope to see you there!
CB7 Full Board Meeting
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital
1000 Tenth Avenue
(58th - 59th Streets)
7:00 pm
June 3rd
On Tuesday, April 8, the NYC Department of Transportation is coming to Community Board 7 to present a new plan to add bike lanes to West 106th Street. This proposed bike route will provide a vital link between NYC’s two busiest biking facilities in Central and Hudson River Park.
The downside? There isn’t one - more space for cyclists is always a good thing. However, there is one crucial way that this plan could be improved. By only offering to install standard painted lanes on W. 106th St., the DOT is ignoring all the evidence that such lanes don’t function nearly as well as lanes that are physically protected. By physically separating the bike lane from traffic, both drivers and cyclists are made safer, and the potential for conflict is almost entirely removed. The DOT should know the value of protected lanes better than anyone; their recently-installed 9th Ave. lane has won them acclaim from cyclists and advocates around the city and the world.
So what do we do about it? Pitch in by attending the April 8th meeting, and writing letters of support for a protected lane on W. 106th St! The DOT is tired of hearing from the same old people, but just a few residents speaking up to ask for the world-class facilities that they deserve could make all the difference. Let them know that you support their work to bring a true bike network to the Upper West Side, and that you will stand behind them if they find the courage to do what they know is right.
Interested in helping? Contact Peter Goldwasser (peter@transalt.org ) or Nathan John (nathan@transalt.org) for more information about how you can make a difference on this crucial issue.
Friday, February 15th, West End Avenue @ 81st Street: The brisk winter morning air was no match for the third grade students of The Calhoun School as they unveiled their new “No Idling” sign to a packed crowd of parents, teachers, and community members.
The permanent sign, mounted to the school’s street-side fence, was the culmination of the students’ crusade to educate parents, bus drivers, delivery truck drivers and neighbors that idling engines contribute to air pollution. Before today’s event, the students had conducted an innovative, highly scientific air quality experiment to help them better understand how pollution exists in the air they breathe. The third graders posted index cards smeared with Vaseline throughout the school and outside on the street. The results were so dramatic, with the outsides samples having turned dark from soot, that the students knew they couldn’t stop there—drivers in the area needed to know that idling engines were significantly degrading the air quality. Armed with their information, the students wrote letters to their Head of School, the Mayor’s Office, and community leaders, and the new sign was on its way to becoming a reality.
The students’ efforts certainly paid off! At this morning’s ceremony a representative from the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability was on hand to formally congratulate all the students and school in their environmental work. (Of course, the UWS Streets Renaissance team was represented as well.) The morning ended with the students singing the classic Joni Mitchell song “They paved paradise and put up a parkin’ lot.”
There was a distinct buzz floating through the halls and auditorium of the New-York Historical Society on the evening of January 28th. Nearly 300 people had gathered to hear Streetsblog’s Aaron Naparstek moderate a panel discussion featuring seven all-star change-makers from across the city. As panelists provided practical, inspiring lessons about how to transform the public realm, it was almost possible to hear the gears turning as hundreds of minds began to collectively imagine the change they could bring to their city.
At the reception afterwards the noise was much more literal as the same hundreds ate, drank, and brainstormed in the Society’s Great Hall. New connections were made, and more than a few exciting new projects were conceived as the guests swirled merrily through the space. Also on hand were plenty of NYC Streets Renaissance advocates and staff, dispensing advice alongside an educational exhibit highlighting the possibilities for a more livable Upper West Side.
Most importantly, the Streets Renaissance (both on the UWS and city-wide) gained many new adherents as the gathered New Yorkers began to picture a safer, greener, and more livable future for their own neighborhoods.
If you couldn’t make it out on the 28th, or if you just want to look back on a great party, please check out StreetFilms’ awesome wrap-up video. And as always, stay tuned to this page for news about other fun activities coming to the UWS, including the inaugural Bike Movie Night, being held at the JCC in Manhattan on Feb. 20th.