2017 felt like a rotten year, but we kept our heads down and managed to accomplish a lot with the help of DOT, our elected officials and the Community Board:
Reclaim Street Space for pedestrians: A whole block of 8th Avenue (42/43) was transformed by dedicating a car lane to pedestrians and adding a protected bike lane side by side. Many cyclists have called for this design to be implemented citywide. We’d like to see it all along 8th Avenue.
Make intersections safer: DOT installed new Split LPI signals at 10 intersections which make crossing them safer.
Improve Air Quality and Congestion: CHEKPEDS joined the Coalition for Hell’s Kitchen South as a founding member. Our Strategy for the Port Authority replacement is gaining traction: The Port Authority gave up on eminent domain and evictions to focus instead on expanding vertically on site; the Regional Planning Association published recommendations that are in line with the Community Board’s and the City administration is pursuing jointly with Port Authority a parallel study of additional rail links with New Jerseys Click Here for stories.
Make our crash data expertise available to other advocacy groups , by publishing the first version of the application Crashmapper.0rg
We have high expectations for 2018 :
Congestion Pricing: will Cuomo and DiBlasio finally focus on New York City (instead of Westchester and Ohio) and follow in the steps of major cities who have benefitted from congestion pricing ?
Pedestrian and bicyclists safety: will NYC DOT fix the 10 most dangerous intersections in our district? Will they give more time to pedestrians to cross the streets in the newest parts of our district? Will they install the 10 raised pedestrian crossings our council member funded two years ago in the participatory budget? Will NYS DOT fix the dangerous greenway?
Will NYC DOT adopt a new safer standard for bike lanes intersections with vehicular left turns? Will they change the signal timing so that vehicles are limited to 25mph 24 hours a day?
Will 37th street get neck downs? Will we get crosstown protected bike lanes?
Will State and DOT and NYPD get their act together and make the bus industry more accountable with a permitting process more stringent, equipment and drivers safety tests and truck routes and idling enforcement?
Will DOT make 11th Avenue a complete street ? safer and more efficient for all users: this project, the final piece from the DOT study of Hell’Kitchen traffic, has been delayed multiple times. We hope to see it happen in 2018 as promised.
Will PANYNJ be receptive to our proposals to improve air quality ?
It will take a lot of work and advocacy to get these done. We are counting on you . Happy New Year!