Traffic Calming

A Streetsblog reader brings us an update on the case of the cyclist killed last December in the Central Park Transverse, through information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Council Member Alan Gerson bikes in support of safer cross-town cycling route for Lower Manhattan, Sept. 2006. Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel

Here's another photo from Mike Epstein showing progress on the Ninth Avenue redesign at 15th and 14th Streets. The photo is looking southbound.

From Sean Roche at the Newton Streets and Sidewalks blog:

Mayor Richard Daley has been aggressive in transforming Chicago into a more livable city, cracking down on sociopathic motorists, encouraging traffic-calming, promoting bicycling and paying attention to the nitty gritty environmental impacts of street design. The Chicago Tribune recently reported on the Mayor's latest effort to fund citywide park-improvements projects using revenues from city-owned parking garages:

More shots of the street redesign project underway just north of 14th Street at Ninth Avenue:

NYC is ChangingA StreetFilm by Clarence Eckerson Jr. Running Time: 1 minute 55 seconds

The debate is over, and as of today the Ninth St. bike lanes are swiftly becoming a reality.

Over on the New York Times's City Room blog, Sewell Chan reports on opposition to the July 8 closing of the West 72nd St. exit ramp from the West Side Highway, a move that has been fought in court for years by neighborhood activists. The off-ramp is being demolished at the request of the Extell Development Company, which is constructing the massive Riverside South residential complex, to enable the extension of Riverside Boulevard, the complex's main street. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has tried to make the case that poses a security risk, issuing a statement that said, in part: