NYC Agencies Take Home EPA’s Top Honors For Smart Growth

Photo: Kyle Gradinger/Bike Coalition — Innovative street designs including the Ninth Avenue bike lane helped NYC claim the EPA's award for overall excellence in smart growth. Photo: ##http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgradinger/2367382978/##Kyle Gradinger/Bike Coalition of Greater Philadelphia##

NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden were down in D.C. yesterday to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual “Overall Excellence in Smart Growth” award. The EPA highlighted four PlaNYC-related initiatives for recognition: NYC DOT’s Street Design Manual, the city’s Active Design Guidelines, City Planning’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program, and the zoning amendment that passed in 2009 requiring new apartments and offices to include bike parking.

At a time when some local elected officials are raring to tear out pedestrian safety improvements and erase bike lanes, New York’s new street designs are receiving honors as nationally significant innovations. In the award announcement, the EPA singled out the city’s construction of more than 20 miles of protected bike lanes as an example of “implementing world-class street designs that support multi-modal transportation and help achieve environmental and other community goals.”

The EPA has given out smart growth awards in several categories since 2002. Stay tuned for more on yesterday’s winners from Tanya Snyder at Streetsblog Capitol Hill.

meb

*sigh* every time I see a picture of a bike lane like the one on 9th Ave I get all envious ‘n stuff…

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Ryan Russo walks through the redesign of Queens Boulevard for Streetfilms.

NYC Streets Maestro Ryan Russo Heading to Oakland

By Ben Fried | Mar 31, 2017

NYC DOT's top planner and a key figure in the ongoing evolution of New York City streets is moving on. Deputy Commissioner for Transportation Planning and Management Ryan Russo will be heading to Oakland as the city's first-ever DOT chief.

Gale Brewer and Adriano Espaillat are calling on DOT to rip out protected bike lanes on Dyckman Street, which would undo a major street safety project that took a decade of citizen advocacy.

Bikelash Rehash With Gale Brewer and Adriano Espaillat

By Ben Fried | Apr 19, 2018

Justifying their campaign to rip out the Dyckman Street bike lanes, Brewer and Espaillat recycle the same litany of objections that surface whenever a bikeway debuts in New York City.

STREETFILMS

Street Transformation: The Chrystie Street Protected Bike Lane

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Feb 27, 2017

At the end of 2016, NYC DOT completed work on the protected bike lane on Chrystie Street, a key connection between the Manhattan Bridge and the rest of the Manhattan bike network. The story of this bike lane is a case study in how good things happen when city officials are willing to listen to advocates with smart ideas.

The 2013 NYC Streetsies, Part 1

By Ben Fried | Dec 30, 2013

The Streetsie votes are in and it’s time to hand out virtual hardware. But first, a friendly reminder that Streetsblog needs your support. Reader donations are what Streetsblog runs on. Contribute to our year-end pledge drive and you’ll help produce reporting and commentary that makes a difference, so that when this time rolls around next year, […]

STREETFILMS

Hey #bikenyc: Where Would You Put New York’s Next Protected Bike Lanes?

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Nov 24, 2014

At the September press conference where Bicycling Magazine named New York City the best American city for biking, NYC DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg committed to adding five miles of protected bike lanes per year “all over the city, not just in the core of Manhattan.” Since then, anytime I’ve been at bike events or out on the streets shooting video, […]

Bicycling Mag Names NYC the Best City for Bicycling in America

By Ben Fried | Sep 3, 2014

Later this morning, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg will join the editor and publisher of Bicycling to announce that New York now tops the magazine’s list of America’s best cities for biking. The news leaked in Portland, which owned the top spot for years and where the stagnation of city cycling rates is a major story, […]