New York City is rapidly transforming Broadway into a shared street. In these photos you can see the old boulevards of Broadway and 5th, but now surrounded by a gravelly surface and planters. Bigger sidewalks, bike lanes, new public plazas with chairs and tables and, here it is, the cars still get through in the heart of one of the most congested islands on the planet. All this done quickly, with a relatively small budget.
New York City Commissioner of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan came to Toronto on Earth Day to speak at an event organized by Walk and Bike for Life. She spoke extensively about cycling (calling it not an alternative mode of transit, but something mainstream and ideally suited to the flat terrain of New York), but she also went much, much further.
Sadik-Khan outlines her plan to transform her city’s grid into a network of shared spaces that favour people instead of cars. She calls her office the Department of Placemaking in New York, and her accomplishments and proposals — including major new policies to massively expand the cycling network, prioritize transit, and give streets back to people through new design concepts and special community-based street closures
Just two years on the job, Ms. Sadik-Khan is about to turn a long stretch of Broadway into a string of shrub-lined plazas and bike lanes, with the street closed to traffic in Times and Herald Squares.
More than 30 hectares of other traffic lanes have already been turned into plazas for people. Dedicated lanes carry a popular new express bus service across the Bronx. New bike lanes are often separated from car traffic.
Broadway’s transformation has a tiny budget of just $1.5-million (U.S.)
– from spacing.ca 005-bikes theglobeandmail
But in other countries cars are winning. Here in India people are buying more and more big cars. Govt are building wider and wider roads. Cutting trees which gave shades for 100s of years. In Bangalore they are building elevated road. soon people will say that also not enough.
Friends please stop buying cars. Use public transportation or avoid travel, if possible.