Pedestrian Infrastructure

When it comes to infrastructure improvements that encourage more people to walk or bicycle to transit stations, how long will commuters be willing to travel? The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has officially answered that question, proposing a significant expansion of the rules governing how close bike-ped projects should be to transit in order to receive government funding.

There are two opportunities tonight to get behind livable streets efforts in Manhattan.

SoHo's Petrosino Square was one of the first places identified by the New York City Streets Renaissance as a prime candidate for pedestrian reclamation. The western edge of the square, defined by Lafayette Street, used to give way abruptly to an inexplicable expanse of asphalt. No longer. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday, officials unveiled a new Petrosino. The square now extends 20 feet farther into Lafayette Street and 156 feet closer to Spring Street on the north. Stay tuned for a report from Streetfilms' Robin Urban Smith. (City Room also has a nice recap and great historical background on the square's namesake, Lieutenant Joseph Petrosino, a trailblazing New York City police officer murdered by the Sicilian mafia while on assignment in Palermo, Italy 100 years ago.)

With all the remarkable recent livable streets improvements in New York, it's no surprise the tenth annual Walk21 Conference chose our city for its host digs. Visitors and attendees salivated over new pedestrian infrastructure and public spaces, including tours of the recently opened High Line and a special visit to the soon-to-be-restored High Bridge. Featuring a plethora of speakers, design charrettes and walking workshops, the three-day event drew experts from the UK, Austria, Japan, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Italy, and Australia, among other places.

The Walk21 Conference starts tomorrow, and in addition to some amazing workshops, there's also a chance to meet and hear from leaders in the global push to make cities more livable.

The Walk21 Conference is coming up in a few days, and there's no shortage of interesting sessions to attend. One of the great parts of the conference is that it tackles issues shared by all cities, and with participants coming in from around the world, it'll be a good chance to talk about what works, what doesn't, and combine that into urban planning strategies that can be exported worldwide.

Over the weekend, a Times op-ed from Robert "The Schluffer" Sullivan proposed physically protected roadway-level bike lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge as a way to eliminate cyclist-pedestrian conflicts and stem anti-cyclist sentiment.