Upper Green Side

Protecting Pedestrians From Cars

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Today’s NY Times City section covers the issue of basic pedestrian protections that Upper Green Side recently raised with Community Board 8, specifically protecting pedestrians crossing the street on Park Avenue with some type of additional barrier, whether it be a concrete barrier as have proven effective on Broadway (see photo above) or a tasteful set of bollards. From the Columbia Spectator article about the incident shown above:

“That wall is the only thing that kept the taxi driver from killing any pedestrians,” Detective Bob Winton said. “He was traveling at 40 or 50 miles per hour-anyone crossing the street would have been killed.”

Clearly these pedestrian protections are effective from a public health perspective - they prevent injuries and deaths. A 2002 Transportation Alternatives study reported that

Very few pedestrian medians in NYC, including those on Atlantic Avenue, are protected by bollards or walls. Thus, there is nothing to stop vehicles which swerve, or are deflected onto the median from killing or maiming pedestrians waiting there. Based on State DMV crash data, Transportation Alternatives (T.A.) estimate that 250 NYC pedestrians are struck and seriously injured by motor vehicles while standing on medians.This is why the pedestrian refuges on streets like Broadway and Route 9A are protected by stout concrete walls and large steel bollards. Unfortunately, they are the exception.

It’s not clear why there are inconsistent installation of these basic pedestrian protections for fairly similar pedestrian medians, but yet many like Park Avenue remain unprotected.

The only other objection to the installation of these basic protections is aesthetics, since Park Avenue’s malls are a city treasure. I will grant that many of the protective barriers installed around the city are not very attractive, but instead of being a reason to not install basic protections, this should be a creative challenge to designers, artists and city planners. Perhaps the Department of Transportation or the Municipal Art Society could sponsor a design competition? Certainly, there are many attractive bollards elsewhere in the world.

And as I mention at the end of the NY Times article, I do think we need to start protecting people more than just physical infrastructure like fire hydrants and telephone booths.

Traffic Relief and More Greenmarkets Please!

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This January stands to be one of the most important months for everyone to turn out at Community Board 8 meetings to have your voice heard on important Upper Green Side issues.

On January 2nd, at 7pm at NY Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street, (First-Second), Auditorium, the Transportation Committee meeting will discuss 4 important items:

1. The NYPD is trying to unilaterally enact restrictions on the number of cyclists that can legally ride together even if they follow the law. We need to convince the Community board that this is a bad idea and that the city council should instead enact pro-free speech legislation.

2. There will be a discussion of installing barriers on the pedestrian islands on Park Avenue to protect people on the islands from cars that can easily ride up on the sidewalk and harm them. We need to support this to encourage more people to feel safe walking across the street.

3. There will be a discussion of the impact of traffic on the neighborhood and whether the DOT should set limits on the amount of cars that pass through our neighborhood.  Please come to share your own story on how automobiles affect your quality of life.

4. Finally they will be setting the agenda of a forum that will take place in the Spring about Pedestrian and Bike safety.

Please come with your thoughts on what should be on that agenda.

Then on Janurary 18th at 7:30 at NY Blood Center, 310 East 67th Street, (First-Second), Auditorium, there will be a discussion of new greenmarket site proposals. Please come with your thoughts on where new greenmarkets should be placed in our area.

PLEASE come to the meetings to have your voice heard! And write to info@cb8m.com to share your thoughts on these matters.

Global Problems, Local Solutions

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Upper Green Side is not afraid of taking on the biggest issues of the day. From fighting global warming to reducing suburban sprawl & preserving open spaces to reducing our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels (foreign or domestic) we are taking direct action on all these issues. And we are doing it here in our own backyard. You don’t have to chain yourself to a tree or go out on a Greenpeace ship to have an impact on global environmental issues. You can be a hard-core environmentalist without the tie-dye T-shirts, without going “back to the land” and without sacrificing much of what we consider “modern living”. In fact, our work focuses on positive changes to our area that will make it more livable and a higher quality of life for its residents.

For instance, our work to help bring two local food greenmarkets has many ripple effects. Most people simply enjoy the fresh fruits and vegetables and that’s great. But consider that that purchase also helps to protect farmland from suburban development and reduces the miles that the food had to travel (and therefore the fossil fuels burned) from farm to kitchen. The dollars the farmer earned on that produce and the money saved on the cost of fossil fuels stays in the local economy instead of adding to our growing trade deficit and military entanglements with the rest of the world. Furthermore, our community benefits from establishing a new sustainable food production and distribution network that is less vulnerable to fossil fuel price shocks or trade disputes. It creates a win-win-win dynamic that makes for a better community and a better world.

Another example is our effort to bring safe bike lanes and conveniences like secure indoor bike parking that encourages more people to use their bikes for commuting or other errands around town. Every year we collectively spend billions of dollars on highly industrial forms of transportation like automobiles, buses and subways. While mass transportation is much more energy efficient than automobiles, it still requires huge inputs of energy, capital and human labor to continue functioning at that highly efficient level and is still prone to breakdown and does have capacity limits at peak hours. Biking offers a very low cost, non-polluting and healthy means of transportation to the vast majority of non-disabled adults and children. And by making more room for bikes on the streets of the city, we reduce the capacity of those same roads to facilitate automobile traffic. Ultimately, what increasing street space for biking achieves is a mode shift of urban commuters from mass transit (or taxis) to bikes. That makes room on mass transit for more suburban commuters to use that instead of driving their cars. And again, quality of life and health outcomes increase while we collectively waste less of our precious resources on polluting fossil fuels.

What I’m basically trying to say is that the solutions to many of the global environmental problems are right in front of us and that we should not think of it as trading off “doing the right thing” with a decrease in quality of life. Quite the contrary, we can improve the global environment as we increase quality of life, save money and promote a stronger, healthier community. All it takes is a little local political leadership from elected officials, community boards, coop/condo boards, schools and all the stakeholders in the community to prioritize simple ways of making a difference. The rewards could be great but the cost of inaction is too. It’s time for a change.

As Upper Green Side moves from a small group of volunteers to a full fledged non-profit next year, we will be working to stimulate this change. We hope you will join us.

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