Shovel-Ready NYC 25×25 Streets, a report demonstrating how space for cars can be quickly turned into space for people in New York City, has been released by Transportation Alternatives (TA), a New York City-based advocacy organization with a mission to reclaim New York City’s streets from cars, and Via, a provider of TransitTech.
This first-of-its-kind report showcasing five redesigned New York City streets was built by TA using Via’s Remix platform, a collaborative mapping solution for transportation planning and decision-making. The report builds upon NYC 25×25, a vision launched by TA in early 2021 challenging New York City leaders to convert 25 percent of space currently for cars into space for people by 2025.
“For too long, city streets have been designed with drivers top of mind, instead of prioritizing the majority of New Yorkers who walk, bike and use transit to get around. We are thrilled to be using the Remix platform and elevating community voices to present a vision for safe, healthy and equitable streets. Seventy-five percent of New York City’s street space is dedicated to the movement and storage of vehicles. It is time to imagine a better use of our streets that puts people, not cars, first,” said Danny Harris, executive director of Transportation Alternatives.
With Shovel-Ready NYC 25×25 Streets, TA and Via present a set of real-world designs, one in each borough, that reflect the expertise of urban city planners, advocates and community members, and articulate specific and actionable plans to reclaim space in New York City. This collaboration showcases the power of community input in creating streets for people and a new way to accelerate the work of reclaiming space from cars.
The selected corridors and their proposed redesigns include:
Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn
Jerome Avenue at 167th Street, the Bronx
125th Street, Manhattan
Northern Boulevard at Union Street, Queens
Midland Fields, Staten Island
Each site was selected by TA based on input from its members and by looking at a variety of data across the boroughs including data on crashes, injuries, fatalities, air pollution, tree cover, asthma rates and bus speeds. TA developed implementation-focused, tactical, site-specific redesigns of the corridors using feedback from local residents captured in Remix Streets, Via’s street design and mapping software that enables a modern, faster and more responsive and collaborative design process.
TA staff and volunteers also visited site locations in-person to gather on-the-ground feedback from community members on their visions for each corridor.
“Right now, the challenges facing our streets are urgent, and we believe new ways of working, such as with Remix, will help supercharge plans to make streets better serve all,” said Tiffany Chu, senior vice president at Via and former co-founder of Remix.
NYC 25×25 has been supported by New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams along with a coalition of more than 200 disability rights, economic, educational, environmental, labor and public health organizations across New York City.
By giving a fraction of the street back to people, the city of New York can save lives, improve air quality, build climate resilience into every roadbed and set the tone for the future of New York as a vibrant city with accessible, efficient transportation and a robust, thriving street life.
This partnership between TA and Via demonstrates a new way to redesign streets by creating technical, actionable plans that incorporate globally-recognized best practices for street design and reflect specific input from the community. The report should also serve as a library of resources for advocates, planners and engineers around the globe looking to bring a NYC 25×25 vision to their most problematic streets.
