Nicole Hughes
June 27, 2008 | 11:30 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
The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!
Nicole Hughes:
Eco-Moms Mad About “Greenwash” Barbie
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Home Depot Will Recycle Your CLF Bulbs for Free
Department of Energy Predicts 50% Energy Increase By 2030
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Jon Popham:
NYC Waterfalls Installation Starts This Week
Capt. John Smith Is Back…and Running for President
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Giulia Rozzi:
Emile Norman: By His Own Design
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Gina Telaroli:
Capt. John Smith, one of the earliest 17th Century English explorers of the New World, is back…and running for President. Well, sort of. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is running a fictional Presidential campaign featuring Capt. Smith to draw awareness to needs of the Chesapeake, and the rivers and streams that feed it, for the upcoming Presidential election.
The original European explorer of the Chesapeake, Capt. Smith found a rich environment filled with fish, oysters, and, of course, Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs in his journeys around America’s largest estuary. In the 400 years since the Bay has lost an enormous amount of its vitality due to pollution from the nearby cities of Baltimore and Washington DC plus the enormous runoff of fertilizer and pesticides from farmlands throughout the Chesapeake’s vast watershed stretching through Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and even southern central New York State. The need for restoration has never been greater in order for future generations to be able to enjoy the abundance the Bay has provided throughout all of modern American history dating back to the founding of Jamestown and the Colony of Virginia.
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Andy Kondrat:
