Andy Kondrat
November 13, 2008 | 10:10 am EST
The New York City Department of Transportation has released a plan to make the streets of the Big Apple more walkable. The plan, World Class Streets: Remaking New York City’s Public Realm by Gehl Architects/Urban Planning Consultants studies the issues surrounding pedestrian traffic and outlines new city policies regarding the function and design of public spaces to better accommodate that traffic in NYC.
The main finding of Gehl, a Danish firm credited with turning Copenhagen into one of the most walkable and bikeable cities on earth, was that - surprise, surprise! - New York City sidewalks are too crowded. The solution? Devote more public space to pedestrian traffic and less to automobile traffic. Given that tearing down privately owned buildings or converting already scarce public park space weren’t viable there wasn’t really anywhere else to turn.
The report and policies fall directly in line with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s vision for a cleaner, greener with less cars. After seeing his Congestion Pricing initiative stonewalled in the New York State legislature, Bloomberg has consistently moved toward cutting down the access of automobile traffic in Manhattan on his own, using measures that do not require State approval such as mandating more bus lanes on Broadway in Lower Manhattan and creating a Pedestrian promenade on the Great White Way south of Times Square. This report represents the further evolution of the Mayor’s vision for a cleaner, greener city that uses less fossil fuels and relies more on people power and public transit.
You can takepart in learning more about this green vision of the future of NYC by checking out the Sustainable Streets Plan.
LINKS:
NY Times: Green Inc.: Taking the Woe Out of Walking in New York City
NY Daily News: International Urban Whiz would ban cars in Times Square
Crains New York: NYC will close two lanes to cars on Broadway
Last week, Jon told you that Mayor Bloomberg wants to charge a tax on plastic bags in New York City to get people to bring their own bags to the store. Jon made the very good point that five, six cents…that’s nothing. It may very well do nothing to stop people from just getting a new bag or five every time they go to the store.
Susan Dominus, writing for The New York Times, says that stores in rural France, where she used to live, charged for bags, but had a better form of behavior modification: shame.
You’d start loading your groceries onto the conveyor belt, and then would have to explain to the clerk that you’d forgotten your bags. She would grimace. For some reason, the bags had to be paid for in a separate transaction. This was slightly more laborious for her, and checkout time at [the store] was a precise, even tense, exercise in speed.
Yes, in France (and some other European countries) it’s as simple as making the idiot who forgot his or her bags feel like the world is ending for all the other shoppers, because of that one person.
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Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced plans to levy a tax on plastic bags within New York City. “The most beautiful thing” that kinda creepy, kinda deep guy next door from American Beauty ever filmed (watch the clip below) is not going to come for free anymore in the Big Apple, if Hizzona has his way, with Bloomberg proposing adding a 5 cent tax for each bag.
The Mayor says the plan could raise $16 Million in revenue each year while encouraging shoppers to cut down on the number of the plastic bags they use from retail stores and move toward using their own reusable bags for their shopping needs.
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Sometimes I browse through Google’s Hot Trends - it’s an easy way to see what folks are into. Today, one of those trends was one of my favorite things, the first lego league! FLL is an organization that teaches middle school kids college level engineering through having them build awesome robots out of legos and then having them compete in obstacle course like challenges. I used to be a FLL coach and I loved loved loved it. In fact, my first TakePart blog post ever (back in November) was actually about lego robotics.
Since I know that besides my mom and dad, not too many folks probably visited out site on day one, I thought I’d repost the story below.. YAY LEGOS! Read the rest of this entry »
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When it comes to education, should we stop testing, should we test more and if we do, what test should we use? New national tests indicate that New York City 8th graders in the public school system haven’t improved at all on math and reading tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took over the school system in 2005. This contrasts with state results that have shown consistent improvement. Under No Child Left Behind, testing is required for students in grades 3-8, but it’s up to each state to decide what results mean proficiency and to create their own tests. Some say that the State’s tests are too simple and not actually representative of a student’s actual level.
New York City has announced a plan to convert two of Broadway’s four lanes into a public esplanade. The surprise move will turn half of the Great White Way between Herald Square and 42nd Street into public space featuring a dedicated bike lane alongside a pedestrian walkway with room for outdoor cafe seating and plant and flower boxes. The esplanade, which the city is calling Broadway Boulevard, is set to open mid-August of this summer.
This is not the first restructuring of traffic patterns on Broadway this year however. A few weeks ago I noticed for the first time that downtown near City Hall on down to Wall Street, automobile Broadway had been reduced to one lane, with the other lanes dedicated to the city and regional bus lines that bring so many people down to the city’s second largest business district.
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