By Gus Saltonstall
On Monday, the New York City Department of Transportation officially launched the first phase of implemention of its “Smart Curbs” pilot program on the Upper West Side.
A portion of the neighborhood between West 72nd and 86th streets, from Broadway to Central Park West, will become the first “Smart Curbs” area in New York City.
The first phase of installation will include new neighborhood loading zones, bike corrals, and a “Street Seat.”
“Our ‘Smart Curbs’ program is taking a blank-slate approach to modernize how we utilize curb space and make our streets safer for everyone,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, in a news release. “Many New Yorkers have provided input to develop this program, and this first phase reflects that feedback by utilizing more curb space for local deliveries, bike parking, and space for pedestrians.”
While some details about the “Smart Curbs” program were revealed in June, the DOT released additional information on Monday.
New Bike Parking Corrals:
- Amsterdam Avenue between West 74th and 75th streets, east side of the block.
- Amsterdam Avenue between West 80th and 81st streets, west side of the block.
- West 83rd Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Avenue, north side of the block.
- Columbus Avenue between West 77th and 78th streets, west side of the block.
- West 83rd Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, south side of the block.
New Street Seat:
- The DOT is working with the Columbus Avenue BID on a new Street Seat public space with seating and planters, in the curb lane on the west side of Columbus Avenue on the corner of West 72nd Street.
New Truck Loading Zones: Spaces for trucks to unload goods that will be restricted to commercial vehicles actively loading and unloading during daytime hours. Passenger metered parking will be allowed in the evening, with free parking overnight.
- Broadway between West 83rd and 84th streets, east side of the block.
- Amsterdam Avenue between West 77th and 78th streets, west side of the block.
- Amsterdam Avenue between West 76th and 77th streets, east side of the block.
- Amsterdam Avenue between West 72nd and 73rd streets, east side of the block.
- West 79th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, north side of the block.
- West 79th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, south side of the block.
New Neighborhood Loading Zones: Dedicated curb access for vehicles to load and unload passengers and goods, including taxi and car service. Free parking will be allowed evenings and overnight.
- West 86th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, north side of the block.
- West 86th Street mid-block between Amsterdam and Columbus, south side of the block.
- West 85th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, south side of the block.
- West 83rd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, south side of the block.
- West 83rd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, south side of the block.
- West 82nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, north side of the block.
- West 81st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, south side of the block.
- West 81st Street mid-block between Columbus and Central Park West, north side of the block.
- West 80th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, north side of the block.
- West 78th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, north side of the block.
- West 76th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, south side of the block.
- West 75th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, north side of the block.
- West 75th Street mid-block between Columbus and Central Park West, north side of the block.
- West 74th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, south side of the block.
- West 73rd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus, north side of the block.
- Central Park West between West 84th and 85th Streets, west side of the block.
- Central Park West between West 82nd and 83rd Streets, west side of the block.
- Central Park West between West 81st and 82nd Streets, west side of the block.
- Central Park West between West 75th and 76th Streets, west side of the block.
- Central Park West between West 74th and 75th Streets, west side of the block.
- Central Park West between West 72nd and 73rd Streets, west side of the block.
The first phase of implementation will also include the removal of the Columbus Avenue rush-hour regulation, which prohibited all parking on the west side of the avenue between 7 and 10 a.m.
Phase one of implementation will last through the end of the year.
Here is how the DOT described why it chose the Upper West Side as the right neighborhood for the first “Smart Curbs” program.
“The Upper West Side is one of the densest residential neighborhoods in the United States and has several major commercial streets,” the DOT wrote in a news release. “This high density, coupled with a significant increase in demand for different curb uses, make it an ideal location to apply the Smart Curbs comprehensive curb planning approach. The Upper West Side also has one of the lowest vehicle ownership rates in the United States, with approximately 73 percent of households not owning a car; the neighborhood’s limited curb space must accommodate a diverse range of needs, beyond just private vehicle storage.”
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The only “demand for different curb use” is what is made up by Mark Gorton and his astroturfed lobbying groups such as Transportation Alternatives and the NYC politicians that they have bought off with “campaign contributions”. The DOT held phony workshops regarding this that were flooded with paid and volunteer activists and lobbyists. I sat at a table with approximately 15 other people and only one other worked or lived in the neighborhood. This is shameful.
I am a lifelong West Sider and don’t know how to drive.
I am a pedestrian and bus and subway rider.
Transportation Alternatives does not represent me – the bicycle lobby has made daily life far worse for my family
I live in the neighborhood and am supportive of this pilot program but was not able to attend the workshops as being a working parent makes it difficult to attend these sort of community engagement meetings. Glad TA was there to advocate for my interests.
I work in this neighborhood and am against this program but was not able to attend the workshop because I am too busy with work to make it and attend these sort of community engagement meetings. Glad Andrew Fine from EVSA and Maxine Deseta from 103rd Street was there to advocate for my interests.
I cannot wait until this is written off as a mistake.
Would bet you anything that all these changes will be permanent – acting like it’s an experiment gives them time to craft the PR spin for the less popular initiatives.
I’d like to ask the Transportation Alternative leaders if they EVER use a car. And if they say yes, then I will ask them – why, don’t you think all cars should be banned?
The issue is that it is alright for them to use cars when THEY THINK it is valid, but if others want to use cars, they object because THEY THINK it is not a valid use.
Implying that THEY are the arbiters for EVERYONE of when cars can and can’t be used.
This implementation by the DOT is going to be a disaster.
So you would agree to something in the middle? Something that doesn’t ban “all cars”, but also isn’t cars in literally every space?
Cars are not literally in every space. We all know you want to ban all cars except for Ubers and Lyfts.
Sam,
There definitely are some TransAlt people with cars – and also privileged to have second homes outside NYC necessitating the use of vehicles.
(And they have family and friends with cars too)
There are also TransAlt people who use a lot of Uber, get lots of stuff delivered – so it would be fair to say they generate vehicle trips.
I wish these changes were going further, honestly. As someone who lives, walks, bikes, and yes sometimes drives on the UWS, our streets right now are far too dangerous. The illegal idling and double-parking by trucks for hours on end is literally killing us, and it’s because our streets–particularly the avenues and large cross-streets–are choked with private parking storage. The curbs need to be used for deliveries, commercial vehicles on short trips, and taxi pickups. Sadly, I think that the people who are scared of change (in this comment thread and elsewhere) have caused DOT to water down this program to where it won’t be effective.
This is not about people scared of change, this is about preserving our ability to get around, to access communities in ways or methods that public transportation may not be the perfect fit for. Trust me trucks will still be idling and will still be double parking regardless, I have seen it.
Fairway has a huge loading zone yet the double parking in front of the store is over the top. Cars with their trunks open both occupy the loading zone and double park signaling to the enforcement authorities not to ticket them. And trucks unload from the middle of the avenue despite their being a block-long loading zone because they can’t get to the curb.
Boris,
BTW folks have Uber in front of Trader Joe’s non-stop impacting the M104 and overall traffic flow.
Also, when TJ’s opened years ago, to help delivery to TJ, the City moved the M5 bus stop from Broadway & 72nd (formerly co-located with the M104) to yards down (west) on 72nd Street.
Bad deal for bus riders
Hi Donald: the point of opening up the curbs for use as loading zones and for taxi pick up and drop off is to preserve everyone’s ability to get around–especially those for whom public transportation is currently not the best fit. Right now, the trucks double park in part because the curb lanes are blocked. Preventing them from being blocked is a big part of the solution to double-parking. And thanks to citizen enforcement of our idling laws, we have made tremendous improvements on illegal idling–but we need to do more.
Both truck and neighborhood loading zones are a joke. The former have vehicles that stand there preventing trucks from getting to the curb. The latter are often used by vehicles who have parking placards that exempt them from parking restrictions. It’s rare to find a loading zone that’s free to use for their intended purpose. Have you ever seen a UPS truck or taxi using a loading zone?
Most of those who use car services on the UWS use uber and lyft and use them to get around within Manhattan for smaller distances where the extra cost is either comped or not excessive. Those who are driving and using street parking, are using their personal vehicles to make trips that would be prohibitively expensive with uber or lyft and making those trips on a regular basis.
Calling it private parking storage in order to demonize people who live, work or otherwise do business on the UWS is an insult. First it is slowing traffic down in order to manufacture congestion, then it is trying to charge for it while making transit worse, then it is removing parking spots, then next it is taking parking garage space away. Seeing what I have seen over the past couple decades, this is not a fight for better transportation, this is a culture war trying to rid the city of unwanted people. This is like a landlord trying to harass a rent stabilized tenant to leave in order to get a certain type of person who does not have much ties to the community and who is here for the experience because they thought Friends or Sex and the City was cool.
Friends hasn’t been on the air for 20 years. Anyone who moved here because they wanted to be like Ross and Rachel probably has kids in public school by now. Neighborhoods need to adapt over time to better serve the people who live in them.
Historically, we haven’t had loading zones because the neighborhood was willing to tolerate double parking in order to maximize the number of parking spots. I don’t think that tradeoff makes sense anymore – the cost in noise, traffic and pollution has become too high.
This isn’t about changing the neighborhood to attract a certain kind of demographic, it’s about making a neighborhood that better serves the people who already live here.
Friends has not been on the air for 20 years, but it inspires many many people and many other shows have sold the same lifestyle and the same social expectations. Most of those who do not own cars other than urbanists are not the ones demanding that curbside space be repurposed. Many on the UWS do not have kids, but are not demanding that schools be shut down because kids are noisy. Many UWSers who are not urbanists are quite understanding that different people have different needs, that is why we had all this curbside space. I bet you if Mark Gorton was not spending his millions on this, none of this would be occurring.
It’s not an insult – it is a description of the facts. Street parking is people storing their personal vehicles for free on valuable public space. I see the same cars parked day after day on my block, they only ever move for street sweeping or to drive to weekend homes.
If I parked an RV on the street and used it for extra storage space (which as a parent I sorely need!), people would rightly recognize that as a clearly inappropriate taking of public space. Street parking is no different.
We could say the same about bike parking. Until bikes have to pay for registration, pay yearly tax and have proof of insurance they should not be on tax payer streets.
You speak as though street parking is some alien concept from Mars singularly imposed out of the blue against the will of the UWS, when in fact the concept of street parking in front or near one’s home is fairly universal, in practically every town and city across the nation, for over one hundred years. Car owners are tax payers as well, and pay vehicle fees, gasoline taxes, tolls, and parking taxes that to a degree offset related costs. We give away public land for free for use as taxpayer subsidized basketball courts, rather than forcing people to use private gyms even though the majority of residents don’t play basketball. There are a lot of tax-payer funded items given “for free” to parts of the citizenry that utilize them even though a majority may not. We are a community of many people and it’s important to balance varied interests and needs even if one personally does not agree with each one.
Street parking in EVERY OTHER MAJOR CITY IS PERMITTED FOR RESIDENTS.
Chicago. LA. Houston. Get out a bit and you’ll see that other cities have worked hard to avoid the very situation we’ve found ourselves in.
Oh and there is actual traffic/parking enforcement there
Parking permits are nothing more than an attempt to push out unwanted people from the UWS. First they will charge $10, parking problems persist, they take more parking away, then the charge will be $300 and they will then argue that those who pay for parking permits are privileged and should not park on the street at all. It is a slippery slope. People who do not live on the UWS help add to the number of parking users so that the 24% of residents who drive do not tell the whole story nor paint the whole picture.
No, parking permits reflect priority given to residents of the neighborhood. It’s also an appropriate use of space. Take a walk down your block and count the number of out of state plates. That’s a huge tell
What will also happen is that they may do a survey of parking spaces, if they find out that more parking spots are open because only residents are parking in them and many residents who garage cannot spend 90 minutes for alternate side or do not want to take a chance with their car on the street, they will take away more parking spaces and argue that a resident permit does not guarantee a parking spot.
How many of them are visiting UWS residents, how many of them work and own businesses serving UWS residents. Resident parking permits will do nothing but make the UWS more hostile to outsiders. The UWS is Manhattan and is the nucleus of a large metropolitan area that includes multiple states. Parking permits make neighborhood residents supporting them no different than the urbanists that want to remove parking. Actually if anything, area workers like myself are more inclined to support a candidate like Sara Lind if we know that the people fighting to keep parking on the UWS only want it for themselves. After all, if the residents who drive are going to turn on me, then I will go to the person who at least MIGHT help make it more affordable to be a UWS resident, and that is not saying much. Area workers may not vote, but we can put posters for candidates on our businesses, political campaigns do build relationships with property managers and supers and local businesses, area workers can also donate to a candidate. Be careful for what you wish for. Workers like me are part of the community, get used to it.
Don’t agree with Eugene on much but he is 100% right that the UWS is not just a residential neighborhood, it’s a major jobs and shopping center for people from all over the city and suburbs. Residential parking permits ignore this reality to take a valuable resource that belongs to everyone and give it over to the exclusive use of residents over workers and shoppers, especially since residents are likely to wealthier. (And if you think there are a lot of out of state plates, start paying attention to how many luxury cars are parked on the streets. I’ve started trying to find any block that doesn’t have a BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, or Tesla on it and I haven’t been successful yet! Why should luxury car owners get affordable residential permits instead?)
Why should luxury car owners get rental subsidies that enable them to live in prime neighborhoods? I’m primarily referring to Section 8 vouchers and public housing projects where luxury cars prominently fill the parking lots. But I also include those who benefit from rent control/stabilization. Why should the money they save on housing be used for luxury cars?
“vehicle fees, gasoline taxes, tolls, and parking taxes”
The difference is you are the only one benefitting from your vehicle. All of those fess and taxes are so you can use your vehicle exclusively. If I rent a car for the weekend, I know I have to pay for all those same taxes because I decided to have a vehicle. Anyone can use the basketball court that ALL OF OUR TAXES PAID FOR you mentioned if they wanted to.
The concept of street parking works in other places in the US because only one family has a house in front of the curb. In NY, a building will have hundreds of people and only 3-4 households can utilize the street parking. How is that fair to the other residents in the building? I can’t even get to my kid’s school bus without having to squeeze through parked cars.
The community is benefitting from the vehicle. The person who drives and lives here is able to continue to live here comfortably and spend in local businesses and contribute to the neighborhood, rather than be forced to leave. The workers and visitors are able to conveniently spend in local businesses, maintain social ties, and serve Upper West Siders in the case of workers. Many driving trips are more arduous and cover longer distances than those using rideshare or even transit trips that UWS residents make. Those driving trips free up public subsidies to be spent on public transit within Manhattan rather than spending them on lower ridership services. If people choose to drive to Manhattan, that means also more subsidy money for suburban bus service used by people who do not own a car in the suburbs and rely on buses as their only option, whereas car owners have an option.
There are plenty of places outside Manhattan with dense buildings that have street parking and they make that work.
It is an insult because it is a distorted “description of the facts”. This space is only considered valuable now because corporate and special interests with money want to price out those who live and work here and have needs that do not align with the gentrifier lifestyle that they want people in Manhattan to abide by. Manhattan is a place where people live, work, do business, build relationships, Manhattan is not the set of Friends or Sex and the City or Michael Jeffries vision of Abercrombie and Fitch.
The same people calling street parking “private car storage” are the same ones that call public transit options they do not favor “a luxury service” including commuter buses and commuter trains.
Funny you should mention that! Come up to my part of the UWS and you’ll see exactly that–RVs parked on the street all week. No different in principle from the car storage the city gives away for free. Or, I should say, subsidized by taxpayers.
How much money do you think NYC should be spending on transit? If we spent the amount of money on transit that we needed to in order to keep everyone happy, we would not have enough money for a lot of other things. No, congestion pricing will not help. You see when NYCDOT supervised and NYC subsidized 7 private bus companies mostly serving the outer boros, it was hard to change service because the companies were more accountable to the public than the MTA was. The private companies were overly sensitive to political concerns and had more closer relationships with electeds than the MTA does. You see the reason why the MTA exists is because elected officials do not want this level of accountability when it comes to transportation policy, that accountability is key to making an anti car agenda work.
Lot of words from DOT but doesn’t seem to be going far enough to optimize the curb space.
Still too much free parking spaces, only ~5 bike parking intersections (which is really just daylighting these intersections). Why are these loading zones going to be blocked by parked cars in the evening ? Don’t people get dropped off and picked up at night as well?
I thought the “street seat” idea was silly – but when the area in front of Chase Bank on the NW corner of W 72nd and Columbus was cordoned o ff a couple of weeks ago, I realized it was now easier as a pedestrian to cross the street, because parked cars weren’t blocking my vision of oncoming traffic. A week later, driving south on Columbus in a rental car, I prepared to turn left on W. 72nd and again realized that the “street seat” made it easier to see where I was turning (no parked cars) and the barriers made it impossible to “cheat” on making the turn and drive close to the corner. So this particular “street seat” is a success in my opinion, regardless of whether anyone ever sits there.
this is called daylighting, and could be considered traffic calming for what it does to make turning cars slow down. adding concrete to further discourage drivers from cheating on the turns, and yes daylighting to keep cars from parking to (and past) the corner, can make a massive difference.
unfortunately, bicyclists don’t hesitate to turn and endanger pedestrians, though vehicles have stopped for pedestrians
The biggest cause of traffic and honking is that our avenues and major cross streets are supposed to be four lanes wide but in practice they are actually only two or three because of double parking. Smart Curbs move the pick ups, drop offs and loadings that right now take place in a lane of traffic and move them to the curb, opening up another lane of traffic so cars can move more smoothly. Redesigning streets to reduce the need for double parking is such an obvious, common sense reform that opponents have resorted to making up stories about how making more space for actually driving is somehow a war on drivers.
this will only work if the trucks making deliveries are willing to park in a Smart Curb section even if its slightly further away than where they are delivering to. Since most of the bigger delivery companies (Fresh Direct, UPS, FedEx) don’t pay their fair share of parking tickets; what benefit will it be if they do not abide by the new options available.
You’re fooling yourself if you think that loading zones will alleviate double-parking. The chances of a loading zone being conveniently located where a taxi, truck, or private vehicle needs to stop is unpredictable. All it takes is one double-parked vehicle to mess with the traffic flow. Vehicles sit double-parked routinely for various reasons and that will not stop.
People make it sound like double parking is an impossible to solve problem. If people aren’t using the loading zones because they aren’t conveniently located, then we need more and more conveniently located loading zones. Keeping traffic moving should be a higher priority than parking for everyone, especially for drivers.
They are creating a problem to sell us the solution and the solution is congestion pricing .
Columbus Avenue has six traffic lines but we can use only one . Congestion pricing is additional tax on all of us .
Nobody drives in Manhattan for fun. Everybody comes here to do work or deliver goods -how else they can do it ? deliver by drones?
They have subways and buses that come to Manhattan these days.
Yes but subways and buses do not work for everybody and the MTA itself will admit that they will not make everyone happy, even in a world of unlimited resources.
The subways and buses, in fact, DO work for everybody in Manhattan. There isn’t a corner of the Island you cannot reach by public transportation
You would be surprised how public transportation does not work for everybody if you barely leave Manhattan. The world does not revolve around the needs of wealthy Manhattanites and part of being the center of a large metro means that you accept that there are people that will access you not by the mode that you prefer them to. Those who aren’t privileged enough to live in Manhattan will be seen and heard.
It should be noted that a lot of e-commerce is delivered by gig workers using personal vehicles that don’t have commercial plates….
That includes Amazon, Instacart, meal kits, specialty/fresh dog food and other.
What happens to them?
BTW have never seen any NYC DOT acknowledgement of this segment of delivery or any data.
But if stand in front of any luxury high-rise and you’ll see quite a lot….
Sounds like Amazon, Instacart, meal kits, specialty/fresh dog food vendors and others have to regulate their delivery “system” to be a legit commercial endeavor, instead of taking advantage of the gig system.
Why are so many “bike corrals” needed when the overwhelming majority of bikes in the city are Citibikes that already have permanent docking stations? This looks like another giveaway to food delivery companies – Brubhub, Doordash , Uber etc.
Also what is “smart” about giving away free overnight parking?
I suspect these are really just serving as ways to daylight intersections. Often even when there is no legal parking spot, cars will illegally parked and endanger pedestrians.
Especially as someone walking around with kids in a stroller, daylighting crosswalks makes a world of difference.
tons of people bike
That’s ridiculous. There are plenty of privately owned bicycles used in the City.
“Plenty” is a rather meaningless distinction.
That doesn’t change that fact that the overwhelming majority are citibikes and the majority of private bikes in the are food delivery bikes. There is also no shortage of existing bike racks – the circular ones that are on the sidewalk throughout the city. Finding one is not at all difficult. I say that as an avid cyclist myself.
west 83-rd is where fire station is – mocking with the south side and blocking fire truck’s way – how is this going to help anyone? 83-rd south side between amsterdam and columbus is overflowing with cars from garages – pedestrians often have to wonder into the street – where are they going to fit bike parking? Perfect example of poor planning….
LOL, more like private cars from fire fighters taking up all the No Parking curb in the block, even the DOE spaces for teachers. Ban all parking in the block and you have all the space you want for the trucks. 10-20 bikes can fit in 1 space taken up by a car. Honestly, I need a bike rack to lock my bike up to when going to the post office, but I end up taking it inside because it will get stolen.
Thank you – but also, can I suggest this informative piece is in desperate need of a map?! One annotated image with a key might be worth 32 bullet point addresses…
Private Vehicle storage, sounds like “ Newspeak”1984. .
I own a car, which I stopped driving into Manhattan about 4 years ago. I take the train in and out to get to my car. Also, I am currently in Sicily on a trip where tiny cars are the only cars used, even for deliveries. Also. the dominant mentality here is that pedestrians absolutely have the right of way. They are the dominant force, and all others defer to them. Until we change our point of view, none of these other ideas will make much difference, although on balance, I’m in favor of anything which makes it more difficult to drive. Actually, I would like to see all private cars banned. Use car service to get around. Have some possible exception for disabled licenses, which we don’t currently recognize in NYC. Get your stuff delivered if you must, but don’t drive around in your big SUV.
Define disability? Not all disabilities are visible. Urbanists are not the arbiter of disabilities. Sometimes it would be better to let everyone be able to drive rather than have an infrastructure sitting and deciding which disabilities to approve or not approve and challenge them legally.
Current blue badge issue process already includes provisions for invisible disabilities. One of qualifying conditions is:
“Any other physical or *mental* impairment not previously listed which constitutes an equal degree of disability, and imposes unusual hardship in the use of public transportation and prevents the person from getting around without great difficulty.”
Do you want someone to spend a ton of money taking the city to court and the city risking bad case law only to return to the status quo now anyway?
Just in time for jaywalking to be legal in NYC
Pedestrians now can cross anywhere legally.
Seems consistent bikes are anywhere on sidewalks now pedestrians can be anywhere on streets.
I have a sneaky suspicion that the same people complaining about double parked trucks are those that are sitting in their cars, double parked, taking a nap, during alternate side parking time.
Just making the streets narrower and narrower for cars. Increasing congestion, pollution, and making it impossible for cars to travel.
This all sounds good. It’s hard though to trust DOT after allowing Open Streets on Columbus to wreak havoc, pollution, and safety concerns. As it’s final act last Sunday, the 7 00 PM street opening time was not adjusted for darkness, and at 7 30 PM streets were still closed.
” Dedicated curb access for vehicles to load and unload passengers and goods, including taxi and car service. ”
What does this mean? That we will have to go to these locations to get a cab? That a cab can only let us off at these locations and we will have to walk home from there?
The DOT has become a rogue agency. It seems to me that they are the ones desiring and creating congestion to prove their point that there is “congestion.”
Proposals are made and then put into effect before the general public has any awareness at all about the change. Many times, this also goes against the wishes of the local officials who seem to be powerless to modify them. (https://www.westsiderag.com/2024/09/05/proposal-for-new-bus-lanes-on-96th-street-sparks-protest-and-support-from-uwsers)
The term “daylighting” is another example of gobbledygook that sounds like a studied position, but it’s only the newest idiom in their power grab. (What ever happened to VisionZero? It seems to be gone after 8 years of constant bombardment.)
They (the DOT) seem to be beyond any local control and are wielding their power in an opaque manner, which only reinforces the idea that there is some other force at work here that has interests beyond what is actually good for the community.
Excellent. Far overdue. Doubleparking is a scourge, narrows traffic in a dangerous fashion (Amsterdam at 79th is essentially one lane) and builds in safety for pedestrians. Some of the new curbs/loading spaces have been implemented in neighborhoods like the West Village to acclaim from businesses and residents alike.
It’s LONG past time for residential permitting as well. 80% of Manhattanites (at least) don’t own a car. Let’s design a city for those of us who live here. Oh and while we’re at it, can NYPD or SOMEONE ELSE enforce moving violations? I’m sick of seeing box trucks and passenger vehicles blow red lights on Broadway, barely missing pedestrians.
So I see, this is about only having people who are privileged enough to afford the UWS to be able to use cars here.
As expected, the comments are already full of people panicking that something will change.
Traffic on the west side will get worse and there will be the same amount of cars but spending more time running in our area. So much for global warming this will make it worse
It would help if we got rid of the bike lanes
Everywhere I walk in Manhattan the number one cause of traffic back ups and congestion is drivers blocking intersections during red lights. Didn’t there used to be a slogan “Don’t Block The Box” about not pulling into intersections as the light is changing? The Police simply need to enforce this sort of thing… giving heavy fines to anyone trying to push through a light and blocking intersections. Everything else can only help so much.
The only people that will have access to the loading Zones are the cars with Placards on the windshield. Since these are the cars who park in these zones now for many days and never get tickets. Maybe if people contact Gale Brewer and complain they will at least be used for what they’re assigned for and trucks will stop double parking. Also why don’t they give parking permits for Manhattan residents like many other cities do.
Parking permits so that people who are privileged enough to afford Manhattan are the only ones that are able to use ever diminishing parking spaces? Rather than fight to restore lost parking and include everyone in that fight. There are not enough UWS resident drivers to successfully fight the bike lobby, you are going to need those from outside the UWS to fight back. Workers like me live in competitive districts, the UWS is not one.
Let’s just keep ignoring the speeding motorized bikes terrorizing the city. How about speed bumps in bike lanes like on all the streets.