The local paper for the Upper East Side
WEEK OF AUGUST SCARAMUCCI’S NEXT STEP? < P. 7
3-9 2017
THE BENCHING OF MANHATTAN PUBLIC SPACES Or how a modest piece of street furniture is making life a little bit easier for the old, the frail, the young and just about everybody else BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
From 2006 to 2015, the number of annual bicycle trips in NYC grew 150 percent. Photo: Michael Garofalo
DOT TOUTS BIKE SAFETY DATA STREETS Cyclist fatality rates have dropped, study shows BY MICHAEL GAROFALO
It’s not your imagination: there are way more bikes on the streets than there used to be. From 2006 to 2015, the number of annual bicycle trips on New York City streets grew 150 percent. According to a new Department of Transportation study, the dramatic increase in ridership has been accompanied by a precipitous decline in the rate of fatalities and serious injuries. “Overall, the rate of cycling fatalities and serious injuries has really dropped as our numbers have risen,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said at a July 31 press conference announcing the findings of the “Safer Cycling” study near the pedestrian and cyclist entrance
to the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn. The number of annual cyclist fatalities in New York has remained relatively flat over the last decade, Trottenberg said, but data shows that safety has improved significantly when increased ridership is taken into account. On a per trip basis, the study says, the fatality rate for cyclists dropped 71 percent between 2000 and 2015. DOT officials and bicycle advocates have suggested that the reduced rate of accidents, even as the number of bikes on the road has grown, is evidence of the so-called “safety in numbers” theory, which holds that cycling ridership and cycling injuries and deaths are inversely correlated. “The more bikers out there on the streets, the safer it is for everyone,” said Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a pedestrian, bike and transit advocacy group.
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Imagine a $1.31 million investment that can boost the quality of life on the East Side, the West Side and in midtown, downtown and Chelsea. A tiny expenditure that can turn the urban landscape for seniors more agefriendly, make a walkable island even more pedestrian-friendly, aid people with mobility problems — and simply give harried New Yorkers a space to catch their breath. Sound far-fetched? Actually, with little fanfare, it is already happening. The vehicle for this unheralded miracle? The humble street bench. Under a federally funded streetscape improvement project, nearly 450 benches have been installed on the streets of Manhattan as of July 28, according to data provided by the city’s Department of Transportation. The average per-bench cost for the citywide program, which has already added 1,800 benches in all five boroughs, is roughly $3,000, according to an analysis by city Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office. That means the cost to date to place sidewalk pews in all 12 community districts in Manhattan is a modest $1.31 million — about the price paid by the MTA for a single subway car. As for the benefits? It’s hard to overstate them: “Benches are a really, really big deal, and we pushed very hard to get them,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who first advocated for benches as a three-term City Council Member representing the Upper West Side. “They enable an older person to get
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More than 500 CityBenches are expected to be in place by the end of next year. Photo: NYC DOT to the grocery store, and the doctor’s appointment, and to rest along the way,” she said. “It helps them to remain independent.” They can also transform a bleak block into a joyous, user-friendly cityscape. Consider the stretch on the west side of Columbus Avenue between 77th and 76th Street, where a tall, unsightly block-long fence cordons off a schoolyard and had created what planners dub “sidewalk dead space.” Not anymore. The Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District added “beautiful landscaping,” the city “bumped out” the sidewalk into the avenue and DOT installed four benches, Brewer said. And voila! “They took a desolate block by a school fence with nothing redeeming about it and made it come alive,” she said. Dubbed “CityBench,” the program was launched in October 2011 with a $3 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, whose Section 5310 initiative is aimed at removing barriers and improving mobility for seniors
and people with disabilities. The FTA in September 2015 awarded an extra $1.5 million in funding to expand the program, which picked up steam in early 2016 when DOT installed CityBench # 1,500. Since then, 300 have been added. The Manhattan tally is now expected to grow to 500-plus benches by the end of 2018, and the goal is to increase citywide totals to 2,100 or more. “Nicest thing the city has ever done for me,” said Rosalie Meyers, who calls herself an “80-something” and was seated on the CityBench at the corner of 89th Street and First Avenue in front of a C-Town Supermarket, a bag of groceries in her lap.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday, August 4 – 7:50 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.
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