A Ride Down NYC’s “Street of the Future”

9:05 AM EDT on October 4, 2007

For years, Livable Streets advocates have pleaded with New York City's Department of Transportation to just try new things. Do street design experiments using temporary materials. Give new ideas a shot. If an experiment doesn't work, take it down, redesign it, improve it or, heck, just restore it to how it used to be. What do we have to lose? If we don't start figuring out new ways to design and manage New York City's streets, all we're left with is a future of ever-increasing gridlock, pollution and honking.

Finally, under the administration of new DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, innovation is happening on New York City's streets. And it is happening fast.

Yesterday, StreetFilms' Clarence Eckerson was down on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea when he stumbled across DOT's new cycle track -- the first significant length of physically-separated bike path ever installed in New York City's urban core. Though the project was announced just weeks ago, the city has already built a quick-and-dirty version using inexpensive temporary materials.

Amazing. I guess we can check this off of the Livable Streets movement's 2007 New Year's resolution list.

Aaron Naparstek

AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.

A Ride Down NYC’s “Street of the Future”

Stay in touch

More from Streetsblog New York City

Pols: Congress Must Bolster Sustainable Commutes to Reduce Carbon and Congestion

Wednesday’s Headlines: ‘Is It A Bird? Is It a Plane?’ Edition

Tuesday’s Headlines: Don’t Look Up Edition

Another Flip-Flop: City Hall Allegedly Pauses Almost-Done Underhill Ave. Bike Boulevard

Analysis: Everyone Agrees — Less Parking Means More Housing