Inwood

Interest continues to grow in the Department of Transportation's slow speed zones, which place 20 mph speed limits on residential streets. One month after the application deadline for the program, community boards across the city continue to pass resolutions in support of slow zones.

The city recently replaced four parking spots at Park Terrace West and W. 218th Street, in Inwood, with a no standing zone. The 34th Precinct reportedly requested the change to give drivers exiting Park Terrace West, a northbound one-way street, a better view of east-west traffic on 218th.

A few weeks ago muni-meters began popping up on the streets of Inwood. Naturally, this made me wonder if the city had considered turning the neighborhood's defunct coin-op meters into bike racks.

It was supposed to happen circa 2005. Then in 2009. Now the city says the restoration of a crumbling block-long staircase that serves as a pedestrian-only street in Inwood will be finished by summer 2013.

After years of delays, a citizen-generated plan for a separated bike path in Upper Manhattan will get an audience tonight.

It's been over three years since residents of Inwood first proposed a separated bike path for Dyckman/200th Street, one that would link Manhattan's east- and west-side Greenways and help foster a safer and more humane environment for neighborhood cyclists and pedestrians. So persistent are advocates of the project, known informally as the "Dyckman Greenway Connector," that they persuaded the notoriously auto-centric Community Board 12 to ask DOT for a feasibility study.

It's no exaggeration to say that, by and large, the streets of Inwood are a free-for-all. With its two free Harlem River bridges, the neighborhood is a prime cut-through for toll-shopping drivers passing to and from the Bronx and Westchester, and is a seasonal haven for preening boom-car owners and speeding motorcyclists. Wide intersections and streets meeting at odd angles make for perilous crossings. Bike lanes are extremely scarce.

Build bike lanes? Manhattan's Community Board 12 doesn't even want to talk about bike lanes.