Archinect - News

New York City announces major new Harlem River Greenway in the Bronx

2023-03-28T13:47:00-04:00

A new greenway project expected to make over a corridor of the Harlem River between the Bronx and Upper Manhattan was announced recently by New York Mayor Eric Adams, adding an important new cog in his administration’s ‘20-20 Vision Zero’ plan that aims to improve and increase pedestrian access across the city.

The project will take shape over the next decade and will bring better bicycle pathways to several bridges in the seven-mile-long area. The plan calls for nodes at Van Cortlandt Park to the north and Randall’s Island to the south. The city will commence a public engagement process beginning April 18th and says it is an important step in reconnecting communities that have been divided by the Federal highway system since the 1930s.

“This administration continues to deliver for all five boroughs, and expanding the Harlem River Greenway to the Bronx is a huge win for equity and justice,” Mayor Adams said at a press conference. “Our administration is leading the way in undoing the...

Utah’s vaunted 'walkable city' still has tens of thousands of parking spots

2022-04-04T19:04:00-04:00

“It’s not that no one has a car,” said Peter Kindel, an urban design and planning principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill who helped create the framework plan for the site that project overseers approved last year. “We’re suggesting it’s more than possible to live with one car to make that big-box [store] trip or go skiing. But for families and young people that are going to be part of the community, they won’t need that on a day-to-day basis.”

The 600-acre The Point development in Draper, Utah, will replace an aging prison complex and will include some 40,000 parking spaces — a typical figure for a community of its planned size of about 13,000 residents.

Previously on Archinect: A '15-minute' planned community is set to rise in Utah

A forthcoming mobility study to be presented to the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority by the transportation consultancy Sam Schwartz is aiming to reduce that number by half via a high-tech admixture of electric scooters, planned bikeways, car-sharing, and (potentially) a fleet of self-driving buses.

“We want to push the envelope,” Point of the Mountain State Land Authority Executive Director Alan Matheson told Bloomberg, “but we also need to be practical.”

Milan to retrofit 22 miles of urban streets for post-COVID pedestrian use

2020-04-21T12:53:00-04:00

[22 miles] of streets will be transformed over the summer, with a rapid, experimental citywide expansion of cycling and walking space to protect residents as Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. The Strade Aperte plan [...] includes low-cost temporary cycle lanes, new and widened pavements, [20mph] speed limits, and pedestrian and cyclist priority streets.

Janette Sadik-Khan, the former transportation commissioner for New York City, is helping Milan and Bogota formulate post-COVID-19 urban realm improvements.

Sadik-Khan tells The Guardian, “The Milan plan is so important is because it lays out a good playbook for how you can reset your cities now. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a fresh look at your streets and make sure that they are set to achieve the outcomes that we want to achieve: not just moving cars as fast as possible from point A to point B, but making it possible for everyone to get around safely.”

In the US, Oakland and other cities are also experimenting with street pedestrianization efforts in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

COVID-19-inspired open streets take root in American cities

2020-04-14T17:50:00-04:00

Around the country, as the COVID-19 shut down enters its second month, cities have demonstrated a variety of responses with regards to access to open space as shelter-in-place initiatives have taken hold.

Some cities, like Los Angeles, have opted to shut down parks and hiking trails for fear of facilitating large groups of people gathering in a single place. Others, like Denver, Minneapolis, and Oakland, have embraced the crisis as an opportunity to make more of the city available to pedestrians. With chronically under-sized sidewalks existing as a norm in many cities, some municipalities are moving to close existing vehicle lanes and entire streets to most vehicle use.

Shot of one of the streets in Oakland that is being temporarily closed to cars. Image courtesy of Oakland Department of Transportation.

In Denver, for example, more than 16 miles of city streets have been optimized for pedestrian use, Denverite reports. In Minneapolis, the figure runs upward of 18 miles of formerly ...

San Francisco to redesign Market Street for pedestrians and buses

2019-10-16T18:50:00-04:00

Following in the footsteps of New York City, Indianapolis, Portland, and others, San Francisco's Market Street will soon be redesigned for use by buses, pedestrians, and cyclists.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors has unanimously approved the so-called Better Market Street Project, a plan that will expand existing bus-only lanes, add new fully protected bicycle lanes, and create pedestrian safety improvements to the thoroughfare. The measure would also largely ban use of the street by private automobiles along the street, including ride-hailing services, Curbed reports.

Diagram showing where cars will be allowed to cross Market Street. Image courtesy of Better Market Street.

The $604 million initiative would transform Market Street between the Embarcadero, at the foot of the city's downtown, and Octavia Boulevard on the western edge of the city center, where the Mission, SOMA, and Civic Center areas meet.

The move comes as New York City's bus lan...

Californians can now trade in their old cars for e-bikes

2019-09-09T18:00:00-04:00

SB 400, adds bikeshare and e-bikes as mobility options in the Clean Cars 4 All Program, which will provide a strong incentive for Californians to switch from car to bike travel.

Regarding the bill's impact, California state senator Thomas J. Umberg, the author of SB 400, said, "Senate Bill 400 helps California reduce our state’s greenhouse gas emissions. E-bikes are proving to be a reliable mobility option for not only replacing car trips, but also more widespread access to clean transportation,” adding, “As an option within Clean Cars 4 All, e-bikes would help California create a more holistic approach to tackling the issues of pollution and traffic.”