NYC Streets Renaissance with Jan Gehl

Lindsey Lusher: [00:04] The concept of the idea tonight is to bring community members on the Upper West Side together to talk about their streets, to talk about the potential for Upper West Side streets, how they can be transformed to reflect the needs of the community.

Mark Gorton: [00:22] It’s just so exciting being, you know, out in the lobby talking to people and seeing so many people so engaged with the idea of transforming our streets and making them more liveable.

Speaker: [00:32] The number of pedestrians has increased so dramatically that sometimes there’s… it just seems like there’s almost no room for pedestrians to walk.

Speaker: [00:41] I’d really like to see this on Amsterdam with the bus lanes, the bus only lanes. I think that would really speed up traffic on Amsterdam, get a lot more people on buses, free up some space on the subway and move people around a lot quicker.

Jan Gehl: [00:52] I’m very impressed with the enthusiasm which you can sense on a day like today and all the people who are here. There’s a lot of energy and there’s a lot of firm commitment to do something and not just talk about it and dream about it.

Barbara Adler: [01:13] Well on 5^th Avenue we’re looking to make it environmentally friendly, pedestrian friendly. We want to make it as green as possible. We want to have distinctive crosswalks. We want a traffic protected bike lane, muni meters instead of parking meters. And we want the price of a parking space to go up substantially so that we have an empty space or two on every single block.

Speaker: [01:36] As a person in a wheelchair all the curb cuts are very uneven, they’re broken up. At every corner I have to know where I can cross.

Speaker: [01:46] And it would be great if they could traffic calm Amsterdam Avenue which is right outside. It’s six lanes of busy traffic and it’s very dangerous for bicyclists. I think a bike lane would fit easily there.

Speaker: [01:56] Amsterdam is just, right now just a highway in the middle of the Upper West Side. It’s terribly dangerous for bicyclists and pedestrians and you walk down and you can hardly hear yourself think.

Speaker: [02:06] One of the things I like to see is that the corner parking spaces be removed for parking so people can pass and cross streets easier. It’s just too dangerous. It should almost be mandated for any area where there’s a school or crossing guard.

Speaker: [02:19] I grew up in this city in the ‘40’s/early ‘50’s. The streets literally belonged to the kids. We played from morning literally till night in the streets, stickball, curb balls, stoopball, box ball.

Janette Sadik-Khan: [02:34] How we manage and deliver our streets, how we approach our streets has a far reaching impacts on our daily lives. Is it easy to ride a bike? Is it easy to find a place to go with your kids to, you know, play in a playground? Is there a good place to sort of linger and chat? I mean those are the sort of quality of life tells I think of a city, and I think we can shape our city to deliver those, more of those outcomes.