The metropolis will quickly announce a long-awaited redesign of Manhattan’s Third Avenue automotive sewer, officers quietly revealed final week.
During a digital city corridor on Thursday evening hosted by state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Upper East Side), Department of Transportation Manhattan Borough Commissioner Ed Pincar mentioned that the company is within the ultimate phases of drawing up a safer Third Avenue.
“We are looking very closely,” Pincar mentioned. “I can’t promise a specific time, but I think we may be able to present a proposal maybe even later this year.”
Advocates and pols, together with the previous Manhattan Borough President (and now-Council Member) Gale Brewer, have lengthy been preventing to reimagine the highway-like roadway that cuts via their neighborhood (the hall is so dangerous that it was the butt of a Streetsblog joke on April Fool’s Day about Mayor Adams promising to flip it into the town’s first bike- and bus-lane boulevard).
“This car highway is long due a makeover and we are very excited to hear what the DOT has in store for us,” mentioned Paul Krikler, a protected streets advocate who works with Transportation Alternatives, on the marketing campaign to redesign Third Avenue between twenty fourth and forty second streets.
On simply these 18 blocks, there have been 114 complete reported crashes since final July, inflicting 51 accidents, together with to 11 cyclists and 15 pedestrians, in accordance to Crash Mapper.
The marketing campaign requires reworking the 4 journey lanes, two parking lanes, and one bus lane right into a calmer boulevard with two lanes for automobiles, two bus lanes, a separated bike path and a widened sidewalk for pedestrians and eating places — designers and architectures laid out an analogous imaginative and prescient in New York Magazine and members of Manhattan Community Board 6 unveiled their very own to remake the thoroughfare.
A spokesperson for DOT declined to remark additional, however mentioned “stay tuned.”
The Krueger occasion was billed as a dialogue on enhancing road security, however the NYPD — and Krueger herself, who was an early opponent of legalizing electrical two-wheelers — spent the vast majority of the time asking about, and giving updates on, a handful of crackdowns launched in opposition to cyclists and e-bike riders, just like the “Bicycle Enforcement Operation in the 19th Precinct,” the primary focus of which was to “enforce the reckless riding of bicycles on Second Avenue corridor between E. 59th Street and E. 86th Street.”
“I know how challenging it can be to navigate the streets and sidewalks in my district. Sometimes my husband and I feel like we are taking our lives into our hands when we step off the curb,”mentioned Krueger, who final 12 months proposed laws that may make it a felony for electric-vehicle riders — together with pedal-assist Citi Bike riders — to crash into somebody and depart the scene. “Practically everyday my office hears concerns from constituents who are upset about the proliferation of bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters.”
So far this 12 months, cops within the nineteenth Precinct have written 338 shifting violation summonses to cyclists; 174 to e-bike riders, 256 to motorcyclists; and 172 to moped riders, in accordance to Sgt. Joseph Palaguachi.
Palaguachi didn’t present any statistics for the variety of summonses issued throughout the identical time interval to dashing or reckless drivers, however, in accordance to the NYPD, via the tip of June, solely 93 drivers have gotten dashing tickets within the nineteenth Precinct this 12 months.
Palaguachi added that cops are deployed based mostly on resident considerations and metropolis stats, which explains why police, who have a tendency to hear complaints at neighborhood council conferences that appeal to solely these with a particular criticism, direct so many assets at cyclists as a substitute of at drivers.
“Our deployment is according to statistics and community complaints, therefore please let us know any areas of concern and we will do our best to carry out initiatives,” he mentioned.
Yet in accordance to these very stats, within the nineteenth Precinct up to now this 12 months, there have been 731 reported crashes, which led to 281 accidents. Of these accidents, 264 — or 94 % — had been brought on by the drivers of automobiles, vehicles, buses or bikes. Only six pedestrians — or 2 % — had been injured by a bike owner or an e-bike rider.