Bike Lane and Safety Measures for Amsterdam Delayed with Split Vote

Despite another pedestrian getting hit by a car today at 94th and Amsterdam and a majority of those in attendance in favor of the Department of Transportation’s revised plan to add a bike lane and other safety measures to Amsterdam Avenue this spring, the Community Board 7 Transportation Committee’s vote ended in a 4-4 tie and the proposal failed to pass.  The Chair will bring the proposal to a vote by the full Board in it’s next meeting on February 2nd.

The initial plan presented by the DOT in November focused on making Amsterdam safer by reducing the four lane “highway” into a more residential street with dedicated left turn lanes and reducing the through lanes from four to three.  By shortening the width of the block, especially with an aging Upper West Side community, it provides more time for pedestrians to cross the street and studies show greatly increases pedestrian safety.  A northbound bicycle lane, as a pair to the southbound one on Columbus, would be added.  The DOT also shared that injuries had dropped 27% since the introduction of the parking-protected bike lane from 110th Street south.

Since the initial presentation, the DOT surveyed 439 community members and 227 merchants along Amsterdam Avenue.  While the proposal has been controversial because it would eliminate 25% of the parking spaces along Amsterdam, the surveys showed only 2% of the community members drove to get to the Upper West Side (the rest walking or talking public transportation).  In addition, the other key finding is that 52% of merchants say the trucks making deliveries to their business often double-park.

The issue of double-parking was initially a factor when the Columbus Avenue bike lane was implemented and the DOT worked with local businesses to create commercial-only parking zones to help mitigate some of the double parking issues.  With the Amsterdam proposal, the DOT initially proposed to have all east side parking as commercial zones, but in talking with merchants have come up with different commercial parking zones from 7am to 7pm (or in some cases just till 1pm) with some on the west side of the street.

Under the current proposal, red loading zones would be commercial loading from 7am to 7pm whereas the blue ones would be 7am to 1pm; all spots would be limited to two hours
Under the current proposal, red loading zones would be commercial loading from 7am to 7pm whereas the blue ones would be 7am to 1pm; all spots would be limited to two hours

Other specific challenges the DOT addressed based on community outreach

  • At the Beacon Theater during loading and unloading for specific shows, the loading vehicles would be allowed to use the curbside and the Beacon would put up a temporary bike lane/barrier and then remove afterwards.
  • At the Plaza Jewish Community Center at 91st Street where parties usually line up for funeral processions, the DOT proposed prohibiting left turns and thus would allow the current parking spots that would have otherwise been lost for a dedicated left turn lane.

The DOT proposed to complete the corridor from 72nd Street to 110th Street as the first phase of the project.  If approved, they believe the lane changes could be completed in three months this spring/summer and the dedicated pedestrian islands within a few weeks after that.

The second phase is a bit more tricky as they have not worked out how the bike lane would integrate with the crossing of Broadway at 72nd Street or how the northbound bike lane would integrate with the rest of the bike lane system below 59th (there currently is no other northbound bike lane between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River – the current 8th Avenue lane merges into Central Park West’s northbound shared road bike lane).  Further to the north, the DOT has not detailed connections above 110th Street where Amsterdam turns into a two-way street.

Four committee members were strongly for the DOT proposal, citing the Community Board’s 32-0 vote late last year to make safety the top priority for 2016, as well as strong community support:

The four opposed cited fear of gridlock, especially with the acknowledged likelihood that delivery trucks would continue to double-park and cause traffic jams.  The DOT countered that with the dedicated left-turn lanes delays would be no worse than today and improved at key crossing points to the West Side Highway at 79th and 96th Street.

Committee Co-Chair Andrew Albert, who voted against the proposal, suggested an alternative would be to create a dedicated northbound bike lane on Central Park West which would take the burden off Amsterdam and more cleanly connect with the bike lanes to the north and south.  To do this, the DOT said that Central Park West would have to be turned into a one-way northbound street like Fifth Avenue on the east side of the park but they had not studied the full impact of such a proposal.

The other Committee Co-Chair, Dan Zweig (who also opposed the proposal) wanted to study making Columbus a two-way bike lane instead of adding one on Amsterdam.  The DOT believed that the pedestrians of Columbus are accustomed to a one-way street and would have issues with having to look both directions in crossing the bike lane, potentially creating more injuries and require a great deal more signage and testing.

In both cases, the DOT noted that putting safety measures on Amsterdam (such as the dedicated left turn lanes) without shrinking the width of the avenue (with the bike lane) would make the safety impact less effective.

The location for the full Community Board meeting on February 2nd is still to be determined.

Planned Changes to Amsterdam Avenue Presented to Community Board

The DOT presented it’s proposal tonight for updating Amsterdam Avenue from the free-form four-lane highway running through the Upper West Side to a more up-to-date three-lane road with a dedicated bike lane on the west side of the Avenue, clearly marked left-turn lanes that will take left-turn users out of the flow of traffic, and delayed greens at 79th, 86th and 96th to give pedestrians and cyclists a head start over vehicles.

DOT Proposed Changes to Amsterdam Avenue would provide a layout similar to Southbound Columbus Avenue

The proposal for Community Board 7 is to break the development into two phases: the first from 72nd Street to 110th Street; the 2nd from 59th to 72nd.  The DOT noted some limiting factors for the lower part of Amsterdam were figuring out how to work around the Bow Tie around Lincoln Center and the need to begin conversations with the Community Board to the south to be sure that there is a cohesive strategy for how they want bicycle traffic to flow.  Community members to the north in Community Board 9 also weighed in, wanting to make sure the plan is holistic as to what happens to bike riders after Amsterdam Ave bike lane ends at 110th Street.

Learning from the changes made to Columbus Avenue that were phased in from 2012 to 2015, the DOT is going to have commercial loading dedicated parking on the east side of the street currently planned for 7am to 7pm but may cut that back to 5pm based on feedback from local businesses.  The hope is that this will prevent the double-parking issues that reduce the flow of traffic along the Avenue.

UWSLive-AmsterdamAvenuePaidLoading

Much of the evening’s discussions seemed to center on the bike lane, frequently pitting older vs. younger Upper West Siders.  Older residents complained of near run-ins between themselves and bicyclists who run stop lights or go the wrong way on Columbus.  What was interesting in the stats presented by the DOT was that where they’ve added dedicated bicycle lanes, injuries to pedestrians have dropped 27% (interestingly injuries to bicyclists fell only 2%).   A great deal of this was attributed to the traffic islands that are part of the dedicated bike lane reduce the length of the crossing the avenues.

UWSLive-AmsterdamAvenueInjuryReduction

One of the primary designs of the proposed changes is that they will help “calm” the traffic on the Avenue, where in off-peak hours an estimated 59% of vehicles travel over the 25 MPH speed limit.  Other concerns from the community is that by reducing the number of lanes, traffic congestion will increase dramatically. The DOT believes that by having dedicated left-turn bays, especially at the key congestion spots on 79th, 86th and 96th where drivers turn to go east to the West Side Highway, this will allow for the through traffic to move forward more efficiently than today.

UWSLive-AmsterdamAvenueLeftTurnBays

The DOT is taking the feedback from tonight’s Community Board meeting, talking to local businesses, and will present a revised plan to the Community Board in January (usually the 2nd Tuesday of the month); with approval seeming likely, the DOT hopes to begin work on the project in Spring of 2016.

To provide your own feedback to the DOT proposal, you can email your statement to office@CB7.org

Vacancies on UWS Extend Beyond Columbus Avenue

While everyone has been noting the vacancy report put out earlier this week by the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, the number of prolonged vacancies appear to be broader than that cited between 67th and 82nd Street on Columbus Avenue.

Some are obvious to Upper West Siders: The former Rite Aid on the southwest corner of 96th and Broadway has been vacant for four years.  The Metro Theater at 100th and Broadway has been vacant for a decade (although that’s reportedly changing).

The increase in rents over the last few years to over $400 of late, has been driving development of larger retail spaces.  Columbus Square was one of the largest developments, adding over 300,000 square feet of retail space.  While the recent additions of Chipotle and Bare Burger have now filled all but one of the spaces along Columbus Avenue between 97th and 100th Streets, the satellite Columbus Square development along Amsterdam between 98th and 100th Streets remains vacant (an Associated Supermarket filled the void for two years but the space has been vacant now for three years).

Seeing those eye-popping rents, residential building have been converting their street-level real estate into larger retail units.  At 175 West 95th Street, the co-op building was converted to condos by Starrett Development including a redesign that moved the entrance from Amsterdam to West 95th, providing more retail space.  To date, no new retail space has been rented (holdovers HSBC Bank and Symphony Vet have been holding on through construction).  Small storefronts for a liquor store, cleaners and administrative offices for Mandell school were displaced during the conversion.

Starrett Development lead a similar conversion at 100 West 93rd Street: where there had been no retail space, they built created 23,000 square feet of retail space.  While they landed Party City as a tenant (with most of their retail space below ground) since early 2015, there has been no main floor tenant signed to date.

Across the street, 70 West 93rd Street submitted a proposal to extend it’s limited retail space (a dry cleaner currently) to build 14,730 square feet of retail space during a September Community Board 7 Meeting.  While the Community Board disapproved the changes, it shows the continual drive to bring large retail space that the Upper West Side isn’t showing any signs of being able to absorb.

In that same intersection of 93rd and Columbus, the former location of Columbus Distributors Hardware on the northeast corner lies vacant.  The former proprietor saw his rent jump from $7,000 a month to $12,000 in 2007 and left for the Bronx when his lease came up in 2012.  With rents continuing to exceed what it takes for small local businesses to turn a profit, it’s likely to stay vacant for some time.

 

Bennerson Playground Upgrade Will Start August 2016 at the Earliest

Plans were presented to Community Board 7 on phase 2 of the designs for refurbishing Bennerson Playground on West 64th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and West End Avenue.  After getting unanimous approval from CB7, the full plans (phases 1 & 2) will be presented to the Public Design Commission on October 27th.

The designs in Phase 2 include picnic tables as well as separate playground areas for 2- to 5-year olds and for 5- to 12-year olds that allow for ground play and are ADA accessible.

Katherine Bridges, a Landscape Architect with the NYC Parks & Recreation noted the project has been fully funded thanks in part to a most recent $350,000 earmark from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and that the project will range around $730,000 in total.  If the designs are approved, Bridges will begin putting the project out for bid and estimates work would begin in the August to September time frame of 2016.

Margareta Curet, a resident from the neighborhood who attended Monday’s Community Board meeting, was pleased, “We only have basketball, basketball, basketball and nothing for the children.  This is really great.”

Construction begins on Playground 89 at PS 166

After a contentious round of design review meetings over the last two years, workers have finally broken ground on the renovations to Playground 89 at PS 166 on the Upper West Side.

Regardless of the construction, the school’s annual Fall Fair is set to run on 89th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam this Sunday, October 25, 2015 from 10 AM to 4 PM.  They are still looking for volunteers to support this year’s festival