This is a fantastic video from Streetfilms on New York City and their approach to remaking streets as “complete streets” over the past few years. The key with complete streets is providing mobility and accessibility for all types of transport: pedestrians, cyclists, public transport and cars – instead of cars and pretty much nothing else.
Over the last four years, New York City has seen a transportation renaissance on its streets, striking a better balance by providing more space for walking, biking, and transit.
As with any departure from the status quo, it can take a while for everyone to grow accustomed to the changes. So Streetfilms decided to look at three of NYC’s most recent re-designs — Columbus Avenue, First and Second Avenues, and Prospect Park West — and show how pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers benefit from safer, calmer streets. We talked to transportation engineers with decades of experience, elected leaders, community board members, people on the street, and business owners to get their take on the new configurations.
The truth is, no matter how hard some media outlets try to spin it otherwise, these new street safety projects have broad community support. And while the story of these changes often gets simplified in the press, the fact is that the benefits of the redesigns go far beyond cycling. A street with a protected bike lane also has less speeding, shorter pedestrian crossings, less lane-shifting and more predictable movements for drivers, and the opportunity to add more trees and plantings. Injuries to pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and car passengers drop wherever the new designs go in. And on the East Side, these improvements have been paired with dedicated bus-only lanes with camera enforcement, making service more convenient and attractive for thousands of bus riders.
I wish Auckland would take this approach to its street upgrades more often.
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Can’t help but notice New York also has turning traffic fighting with pedestrians crossing at the same time. Really those should be phased that out in favour of all way pedestrian phases. While I like the way bike lanes between parking and the kerb have been set up, Hobson and Nelson streets are probably the only streets in Auckland wide enough to allow for that to be implemented at the moment…
I’d suggest that the Symonds Street upgrade goes some way towards creating a “complete street.” And you could argue that the shared streets being implemented in the city centre go even further in this direction. So I’m reasonably optimistic that we are headed in the right direction, even if progress is painfully slow. Miggle is also partly right – the width of the streets is an issue in many locations.
One thing I really liked was that they narrowed down the lanes a bit to fit bike lanes in yet they still had the same overall number of traffic lanes. One thing I have noticed here is we have been trying to make all lanes a set width. With the Dominion Rd plans we saw last year the lanes were even a full width right through the town centres and it was the bike lane that was cut, in the mid blocks people complained about the bike lane as that was what was perceived as the reason for the widening works which made people think the bike lane was an expensive luxury that only a few would use.
They should have done this with the bike-lane on Lambie drive in Manukau
Looks a bit like a typical city street in China or Taiwan with traffic lanes in the centre & auxilary lanes at the sides for bikes.
There are plenty of streets wide enough for this to be implemented e.g. Pitt Street, Wellesley Street, Victoria Street and ones like Ponsonby Rd really need some traffic calming and would be super popular fr bikers if bike lanes were provided along its width. Ponsonby Rd has sufficient space for cycle lanes if the road lanes were narrowed and the median strip removed.
One very nice thing about NYC Complete Streets is that many of the plans are relatively inexpensive – no costly pavers (NYC only uses concrete or asphalt; any other materials are covered privately) and maximum use of mid-block refuges to reduce the need for new catch pits. They understand the concept of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ and how many small improvements (as opposed to 2 or 3 blockbuster projects) add up. Another nice thing is that they do this all over the city – not just Manhattan or areas for tourists. I wish AT would take note; especially in light of reduced NZTA subsidies.