Pedestrian Infrastructure

Despite starting off with a somber reminder of the damage created by dangerous driving, Manhattan Community Board 7's transportation committee ended its meeting last night gridlocked over whether to support meaningful street safety improvements.

After receiving requests from the Graham Avenue Business Improvement District and the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council (yep, that one) for better sidewalks and safety improvements, DOT presented a plan [PDF] for Bushwick Avenue to Brooklyn Community Board 1's transportation committee last week.

Last week, Staten Island Community Board 1 passed a resolution asking DOT to install bike lanes, while in Manhattan, a community-requested plan for a road diet and pedestrian islands continues to be delayed by two Harlem community boards.

From 116th Street to 126th Street, Morningside Avenue is known as a speedway between Harlem's residential streets to the east and Morningside Park to the west. A traffic calming plan from DOT [PDF] now waits while Community Boards 9 and 10 weigh in. Transportation committees of both boards received presentations from DOT, followed by question-and-answer sessions, but so far, there have been no resolutions advanced from the boards and Council Member Inez Dickens remains supportive of traffic calming in concept but noncommittal about the proposal on the table.

The intersection of 155th Street, Edgecombe Avenue, St. Nicholas Place, and Harlem River Driveway is a busy, complex web where pedestrians jockey with turning drivers to cross wide expanses of asphalt. DOT began studying the location after a request from Council Member Robert Jackson. A final design and community board review is months away, but at a meeting two weeks ago, DOT outlined some suggested fixes. Another notable development at the meeting: The Assembly member representing the area -- Herman "Denny" Farrell, the powerful chair of the Ways and Means Committee -- declared that he drives everywhere in his transit-dependent district.

On a tour of her council district in East Elmhurst and Corona with Errol Louis of NY1 on Friday, Council Member Julissa Ferreras highlighted two livable streets projects: Corona Plaza, a popular gathering spot near the 7 train, and wider medians on Astoria Boulevard to help seniors cross the street.

Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem isn't the only green space receiving traffic calming improvements this summer. In the Bronx, Friends of the Williamsbridge Oval waged a fight with DOT to get crosswalks and pedestrian space near their park in the Norwood neighborhood. Now, a plan [PDF] presented to Community Board 7 this spring has been implemented.

Last fall, Lou Huang was at a community meeting for the initiative to redesign Second Street in San Francisco. Planners handed out paper cutouts, allowing participants to mix and match to create their ideal street. Huang, an urban designer himself, thought the exercise would make for a great website. Now, after months of work beginning at a January hackathon with colleagues at Code for America, it is a great website.

The Dutch Kills neighborhood sits on the northern edge of Long Island City, hemmed in by Northern Boulevard and Queens Plaza, with the East River to the west and Astoria to the north. Dangerous traffic is an everyday presence -- and not just on the main arteries nearby. After a number of car-on-car crashes, neighborhood advocates joined with elected officials yesterday, calling on DOT to implement traffic-calming measures.