Milestones for New York City

Our next shared street and other notable local news

Sharing is Caring

New York City’s next “shared street” is coming to Broadway between 24th and 25th streets. While separations like sidewalks and protected bike lanes are the safest route in chaotic New York traffic, Europeans have long known that removing all infrastructure from streets in pedestrian-dense places is a great way to force drivers into a slow-paced awareness. In parts of the Netherlands and Great Britain, there are no curbs, sidewalks, or paint on the roadways — and drivers are forced to pay a lot more attention. New York’s experiment with sharing begins on a block where pedestrians outnumber drivers 18 to one, so it’s likely our next shared street won’t be our last.

Down Payment on a Vision

When Mayor Bill de Blasio pitched his draft budget for the City of New York in January, Vision Zero activists weren’t happy with the amount of money the mayor dedicated to fixing dangerous streets. After months of petitioning of City Hall, Mayor de Blasio was swayed, and in the final version of his budget, he upped the funds for Vision Zero streets by $300 million. With an election approaching, Mayor de Blasio’s big investment means that Vision Zero is a long-term project for him, and for New Yorkers, that’ll be a lifesaving legacy.

Vision Zero Cities Goes Global

A few hundred experts in traffic safety gathered at Fordham Law School for the third annual Vision Zero Cities Conference. Mayor Bill de Blasio kicked off the festivities while attendees from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale shared success stories of their local Vision Zero efforts. Missed the Vision Zero Cities Conference? You can still learn from these experts. Visit visionzerocities.org to read the Vision Zero Cities Journal and learn about the latest in lifesaving innovation, featuring experts from cities in the U.S., Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.

Traffic Relief for Bridge Bikers

Until recently, bicycling from the Financial District to the Brooklyn Bridge involved breaking the law (by salmoning the wrong way up Park Row), or a substantial detour along a sketchy stretch of Church Avenue. That’s all about to change, with the Department of Transportation’s commonsense plan to add two-way protected bike lanes connecting Lower Manhattan to the bridge. But the Brooklyn Bridge isn’t the only historic span getting transformed for cyclists; new protected bike lanes are coming to South 3rd Street, Scholes Street, South 4th Street, and Meserole Street en route to the Williamsburg Bridge, too.