Streets designed for safe, accessible, and equitable use. That is the vision of the "Blueprint for the Upper West Side: A Roadmap for Truly Livable Streets," to be unveiled tonight by the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance Campaign. The product of one year of community-driven planning, in consultation with urbanist legends Jan Gehl and Donald Shoup, the 51-page Blueprint [PDF] is an expansive neighborhood-wide plan that would employ many livable streets concepts already in use by NYC DOT.
Proposals include:
- Separated bike lanes and bike boxes on Broadway, Amsterdam and Columbus
- Bollard-protected pedestrian bulb-outs
- Leading Pedestrian Intervals
- Curb extensions to slow auto traffic and allow for garbage pick-up
- Bus bulbs with bike parking
- Chicanes with reverse-angle parking on cross streets
The Blueprint was composed from input gathered via neighborhood surveys and citizen workshops in a community where drivers account for 10 percent of commutes but absorb 228 times more street space per capita, and where over 5,000 pedestrians and cyclists were injured or killed between 1995 and 2005.
Gehl will be on hand for tonight's reveal, as he was at the project's inception last November. The event is free and open to the public.
Where: P.S. 87, 160 W. 78th St. between Amsterdam and Columbus
When: 6:30 p.m.
