So here we are standing in Times Square where you see a lot of activity, you hear a band
playing behind me, you can see people sitting out, having a coffee, chatting, catching up
with friends and it sort of seems natural even on a cold blustery winter day here where
it's 40 degrees in New York City. Only these are the kind of type of things that wouldn't
happen a couple years ago because there wasn't enough room on the sidewalks and this great
attraction that people come from all around the world to see was pretty much dedicated
towards cars. It's important to remember that as much as some people drive that fewer than
half of all New Yorkers own cars so we need to make the city that works for commuters,
for drivers, for cyclists, for pedestrians and for folks of every age, for a young,
for old, for in between. When we look at people that are going into city planning
and people that are working as city managers they're beginning to think differently about
how cities function and they're not thinking that the highway is terribly important for
central business districts. It's okay to keep a couple high speed roads like the Brooklyn
Queens Expressway to keep us moving around from one part of the city to the other but it's not
okay to tune every one of our streets for that purpose and so the work that New York City is
doing in spots like this is helping bring back more life to the streets and the rest of the
neighborhoods around the city and around the country that are moving towards this approach
are also going to benefit.
The first thing to note is that this is not just a bike lane it's what we call complete street
design. We had a very wide avenue with five lanes in it already and they were 12 feet wide lanes so
rather than take out a lane we actually just kept the same number of lanes but made them
a little narrower which has the side benefit of slowing down the traffic. Columbus Avenue
before the bike lane was in used to be the width of a highway it's often even sometimes
still like a grand prix out there but the bike lane and the traffic islands make it so much easier
to cross the street they're like a little oasis so you can see that people will come right through
here's a left car coming through and he's gonna wait because he's going through the islands and
wait for the pedestrians to pass so it really is helpful for people with baby carriages and strollers
older people with walkers and and wheelchairs you you can observe them on the street stopping in
these islands and taking a breath before moving on. When I saw that there was going to be a whole
lane of parked cars between me on my bike and the traffic I was really quite ecstatic. Before the
lanes I would have avoided Columbus Avenue because there are too many huge trucks and now now it's
a completely different story I could ride happily on Columbus. At least two-thirds of our staff commute
by bike every day into the store and so it's only helped them get to and from work having that
bike lane there. Our business is like a lot of delivery it's good for business or good for city
protect for myself the delivery guy and they get used to that it's wonderful yeah they love it. I
think especially for the bikers and what I heard at the community board meeting that they need a
safe place to ride and we've been like I said all for it and we think it's great all of our vendors
have been able to get here and they never really have a huge problem with parking. Hasn't affected
our shipments we have a bus stop in front of the store anyway so we've always had to be cautious
about how our shipments are coming in and out of the store. Eventually hopefully very soon we'll be
planting trees and flowers in these tree pits and it's a way for the community to become involved
in the plantings. It's another amenity and unexpected outcome from the bike lane.
What we have here on 1st and 2nd Avenue on the east side of Manhattan
is an attempt to really change the street. We've got a dedicated bus lane we've got a dedicated
bike lane we have some these lanes somewhat protected the goal here is basically to create a
street that is that is more friendly for pedestrians that is more friendly for bicyclists and that is
more friendly for traditional car users as well as commuters who commute by bus. I think complete
streets are really an important reshaping of the streets so that they reflect the number of people
that are being moved by each mode. Buses move a great number of people so providing and dedicating
a lane for buses makes a lot of sense. I take the select bus over there oh that is great
it gets me uptown much quicker time. When they said they were going to get a limited that would come
up and down these avenues quicker I said oh yeah yeah yeah but the lanes have made a big difference
so they're fast and you get on fast. People on this in the east side of Manhattan are three times
more likely to commute by walking to and from work than anywhere else in the city. The intersection
just north of here is one of the most dangerous intersections in this entire corridor and some
of these improvements are intended directly to make the intersections safer for pedestrians.
I love the island this the traffic's coming out from here and they can't just zoom around they
have to wait for you it gives you more time to cross and there's not a lot of time on this light
here so it's a help. I support the Prospect Park West redesign you know I think it's a great example
of a community-driven project the community board asked for it both to reduce speeding and
calm traffic on Prospect Park West and to create a safe place to bike and to make Prospect Park
West safer for all its users. Back in the late 90s early 2000s we had a big push for traffic calming
at the same time the Bloomberg administration was moving toward adding bike lanes when it came to
Prospect Park West it seemed a perfect opportunity to combine the two to both narrow it was a three
lane you know a racetrack essentially while providing a very important link in the bicycle
path system around the city so the community board's extra transportation committee you know
jumped on that and felt that it was a worthwhile project. A lot of people who live on Prospect Park
West have reported to me that before it felt to them like living on a speedway I drive and I remember
you know you could zoom in and out of those three lanes and there was something fun about it but
it was dangerous and I think folks who drove it knew it and folks who lived there felt it. A road
like this by slowing down the motor speeds from about just under 35 miles an hour to just above
25 miles an hour that begins to make a dramatic increase in pedestrian safety for lots of reasons
cars are more likely to yield to them cars the stopping distance is shorter once they spot a
pedestrian in the roadway and even in the unfortunate incident of there being an impact
the likelihood of severe injury is less at the slower speeds. Before the project went into effect
more than three quarters of cars were speeding and now it's only about one in five. Since they
put the new traffic system in it's been fantastic I'm not a bicycle rider but even without the
bicycle path I like the traffic calming. We love the new bike path I'm out here a lot with my boys
we live in the North Slope we take it all the way down to Bartle Prichard Square then we cut into
the park and we hit the soccer fields and the best thing about it is I can get home now I never
used to be able to get home and now we have a two-way bike lane so it's safe both directions.
It's just very calm and it's very civilized I didn't have to ride on the sidewalk like I used to
I actually felt safe I didn't feel like anything was going to hit me and other bicyclists were
obeying the traffic signals and stopping when they were supposed to stop. I'll tell you that as
a cyclist and as just someone who's walking his dog all the time I like the new design it slows
down the neighborhood and a beautiful park that's a beautifully designed street it's fantastic.
It's extraordinarily important that we find ways to make our communities
more accessible to all the people who want to use them and allow for
kinds of transportation that are more sustainable in the long run. It's increased our foot traffic
I mean that was something we anticipated was having the bike lane in would draw more people
into the store just because it's it's more accessible. As New York is changing its streets
where people drive in a more civil fashion it just brings out even more people who walk
more people who bike more people who don't get in a car. Cars are not bad I mean they're
very useful but I think the changes are better for the city I think it promotes people to be
healthier we need people to be healthier. The protective bike lanes are part of a broad vision
of a city that is friendly to more than just the automobile and it will take time for people to
become accustomed to sharing the streets in this new way. We're also beginning to restore
the streets as places that we once saw in our great neighborhoods from 50, 60,
70, 100 years ago and this is important because it helps make the local economy more vibrant it
makes the neighborhoods more enriched but also it returns people to the ability to walk and bike
around. People have countered they said there's problems for people who live in the area who
have cars there there may be inconvenience but I think you have to sometimes trade off
inconvenience for safety and safety is paramount. For the most part what media looks for is a
story and a story that things are going well just doesn't make it to the headlines but if people
are complaining and people complain about almost anything it will get itself into the newspapers
but I can tell you from my point of view and I'm the dear abbey of traffic uh if a driver has a
complaint they will write to gridlock sam I haven't been getting complaints no complaints about first
second avenue is no complaints about the ninth avenue or eighth avenue bike lanes so the drivers
seem to be adjusting to it I think we're moving almost as many people in cars as we moved before
you can see the bikes coming watch them watch them oh it is much more visible you can see the
bikes you can see the cars the only thing you have to do is not to just step out because you see
an island here and it when the lights against you that's very important that people have to learn that
