Streets
Our streets can be the most vibrant on earth—but we are facing record rates of traffic fataLities and rat sightings.
Improvements to bus and bike infrastructure are too little and too slow, as cars continue to dominate the streets—bad for safety and sustainability.
Outdoor dining and open restaurants have helped support local businesses and their employees, and are massively popular given the vitality they’ve brought to our streets, but our elected officials are trying to roll back this progress.
Cuts to the sanitation budget and resistance to waste management improvements have led to hordes of rats we’re doing nothing to fight.
We know how to make our streets cLeaner, Less congested, and better for the cLimate—but we Lack the poLiticaL wiLL to get it done.
OnLy 22% of Manhattanites own cars—and Less than 10% of our district commutes by car—but our streets are stiLL designed for driving. It’s time to reshape our streets to shift more trips to bikes and pubLic transit.
Our 3 million free parking spaces aren’t really free: it’s time to charge for them. Free parking means more driving, more traffic deaths, and less space for bike and bus lanes.
We must finally implement congestion pricing, to fund public transit and reduce the numbers of cars on the road by up to 300,000 miles traveled.
Streets must be redesigned and cars must be regulated to drastically reduce traffic deaths: protect all bike lanes, expand speed cameras, and ban car designs that increase fatality of accidents.
new Yorkers’ quaLity of Life starts in our pubLic spaces. They shouLd be cLean, vibrant, and equitabLe.
Outdoor dining supported 11,000 restaurants, 100,000 jobs, and safe enjoyment of eating and drinking during the pandemic. It has an 80% approval rating in Manhattan. Outdoor dining should be expanded and improved—not shut down, as our current Assemblymember is advocating.
New York should catch up to other cities and finally put our trash bags in rat-resistant containers, rather than piling them on the streets.
More car lanes and parking spots should be transformed into space for pedestrians, parks, and plazas that can be enjoyed by all.
Street use is a cLimate issue: it’s time that new York’s streets are truLy sustainabLe.
Congestion pricing and charging for parking will help reduce incentives to drive, the single biggest driver of carbon emissions according to the EPA.
Disincentivizing car use must come with investments in connected, protected bike lanes; dedicated busways; and improvements to the MTA so everyone can get around without one.
Swales and tree pits, and new paving materials, should be mandated to absorb rainfall and prevent flooding.
Today, our streets serve drivers over transit users, encourage emissions over sustainabiLity, and faiL to prioritize peopLe over rats.
To save lives today and in the future—and to improve the quality of our lives over the coming years—we must reclaim our streets.