NYC's Streets Plan

It's a draft. Pardon me if it takes the wind out of my sails.

Find the whole plan here.

Local Law 195, signed by Mayor de Blasio at the end of November 2019, gave NYC’s Department of Transportation (DOT) a little over 2 years to develop a 5-year plan for the city’s streets—cars, curbs, freight, pedestrians, transit, safety, environment—you name it. The law itself sets some aspirational benchmarks for the city to build toward:

• 150 miles of protected bus lanes.

• 4,750 “transit signal priority” intersections.

• 250 miles of protected bike lanes.

• 500 bus stop upgrades.

• 2,000 “pedestrian signal priority” intersections.

• 2,500 “accessible pedestrian signals.”

• Assessment of commercial loading zones and freight support.

• A parking audit.

• 1,000,000 square feet of new and/or upgraded pedestrian space.

The numbers themselves are concrete but their impact feels …abstract? Without a developed, context-sensitive plan, these benchmarks feel arbitrary and not particul…