Janet LawsonLiving Streets Aotearoa

Walk 21 – New York CityOctober 2009

Living Streets AotearoaHelping to make your community walking-friendly

• Walk2Work Campaign• National Walking Conference• The Golden Foot Awards• Local Walking Action Groups• Community Street Reviews• Walking maps• Walking resources and information

Walk 21 – Stand out presentations

• Sarah Gaventa – CABE Space, UK Paved with Gold

• Ellen Vanderslice – Portland Bureau of Transportation

Sarah Gaventa - CABE Space

• National Champion for Urban Design in UK

• Produced ‘Paved with gold’ – economic benefits of good street design

• Found that a 1pt increase on the PERS scale gave a 5.2% increase in residential prices and a 4.9% increase in retail rental.

Sheffield Rail Station

Sheffield Rail Station

Ellen VanderslicePortland

Portland – The green dividend

Portland - The green dividend

Walk 21 – more information

• http://www.walk21.com/conferences/newyork.asp

New York, New York!

‘Whether we are driving, taking the bus, bicycling or riding the subway, each of our trips begins and ends with a walk as a pedestrian. To make walking the most enjoyable choice, NYCDOT will reclaim portions of streets in appropriate locations to share the public right of way more equitably’.

Rationale for change

• Safety - reduces pedestrian accident rates

• Congestion – both vehicle and pedestrian traffic

• Journey times – significantly reduced near choke points

Safety

• One Pedestrian death on New York streets every day

• Main problem areas are where Broadway crosses the main grid layout

Journey times

•7th Ave - traffic flows 43% more slowly north of Times Square than south

•6th Ave – traffic flows 23% more slowly south of Herald Square than North

NYCDOT projects• Green Light for Midtown ( Broadway )• Complete Streets• Safe Streets for Seniors• Safe routes to Schools• Public Plaza scheme• Bike lanes• Summer Streets• Design manual

Green Light for Midtown Times Square

Times Square

Herald Square

Madison Square

Broadway

1400 square metres of new public space

Complete Streets – Lower East Side

• Allen and Pike Streets

Complete Streets – Lower East Side

Public Plaza scheme

• Aims to transform underused streets to create high quality public spaces

• Local non-profit Groups apply for funding to create a public plaza

• NYCDOT funds design and construction

• Local groups responsible for maintenance, insurance and events

Public Plaza scheme

Summer Streets

•14 Streets closed to vehicles on a weekend morning

•50,000 people came out on the first closure

The HighlineManhattan’s newest park

Successful?

• Pedestrian death rate is now at its lowest since records began in 1910

• 48% decrease in senior road related fatalities

• 1400sq.m. of new public space

• Working towards 1800miles of extra cycle lane

• Traffic congestion and flow ?????

There’s still a long way to go yet!

• Infrastructure problems

• Disability access

• Driver attitude

• Pedestrians v bikes v cars

Comparisons to New Zealand

• NY’s problems are similar, only more so –congestion, need to improve traffic flow and efficiency, need to improve road safety

• Urban transport network is similar

• The car is king

Lessons for New Zealand

• Improving traffic flows and efficiency does not mean building more roads

• Reducing road space for traffic to increase traffic flows is not instinctive – but can work

• Political will and commitment is necessary to make change

• Our problems are not as bad – so we have a head start.

Further information

• http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/sidewalks/sidewalks.shtml

• http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/streetdesignmanual.shtml

• http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/home/home.shtml

• http://nelsonnygaard.com/Documents

/Reports/NYC-Streets_Blueprint-Upper-West-Side.pdf

Thank you for listening

• Janet.Lawson@livingstreets.org.nz

• Liz.thomas@livingstreets.org.nz

• 04 385 8280