The New York City Plaza Program is a capital program of the New York City Department of Transportation that converts underutilized roadway space into neighborhood amenities through partnerships with local non-profit organizations and communities. The program, launched in 2008, has accepted six rounds of applications and has realized 22 new public spaces for New Yorkers.…
Cleveland’s HealthLine bus rapid transit system connects the downtown central business district with University Circle, a cluster of medical facilities and cultural amenities, via dedicated median bus lanes along Euclid Avenue. Completed in 2008, the 6.8 mile bus rapid transit corridor transports 16,000 bus riders a day, up from 9,000 daily prior to the redesign.…
Los Angeles’ CicLAvia initiative opens city streets to bicyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders, and rollerbladers, temporarily transforming the city’s largest public space, its streets, into major active transportation corridors. Initially conceived by a group of volunteers in 2008, CicLAvia will soon hold its 7th annual event. Routes have ranged between 6.3 and 15 miles, with the most…
Marquette Avenue and 2nd Avenue comprise a pair of parallel one-way streets running north and south through Minneapolis’s downtown. Together, these streets carry high volumes of vehicle and bus traffic, especially during peak hours. In an effort to improve transportation in the busy downtown district, the City of Minneapolis completely reconstructed the two streets to…
Longfellow Street, a short residential street in Santa Monica’s Borderline neighborhood, connects the neighborhood retail corridor with Ozone Park. The $1.6 million Borderline Neighborhood Shared Streets project transformed the formerly narrow and unappealing Longfellow Street into a landscaped shared space for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists, creating people-oriented community space. Project Origins Longfellow Street is a…
The City of Cambridge converted Harvard Square’s Winthrop Street into a shared street in 2007, and Palmer Street shortly after. Previously, each travel mode had a designated space, and the street was cramped and poorly maintained. Conversion to a shared street allowed for more efficient use of space on a small street, accommodating pedestrians, bicyclists,…
Unveiled in 2010 as part of a series of major reconfigurations along Manhattan’s Broadway corridor, Union Square embodies the key principles used by NYC DOT in redesigning complex intersections. As part of the redesign, multi-phase traffic signals were simplified, pedestrians plazas created at undefined or underused locations, and bikeways and turn lanes added to better…
In 2012, Chicago’s Department of Transportation redesigned Dearborn Street, a high-profile, one-way downtown street in Chicago’s central business district, the Loop. Formerly a busy north-south thoroughfare with three vehicle travel lanes, Dearborn Street now has two vehicle travel lanes and a barrier-protected two-way cycle track. Prioritizing Complete Streets Upon his election as Mayor in 2011,…
New York City’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, a historic street in Harlem that suffered from rampant speeding and frequent vehicle crashes, spans 2.2 miles between 110th and 153rd Streets. Prior to its redesign, this downtown thoroughfare posed a significant danger to public safety, with more serious injuries and fatalities than 88 percent of Manhattan…
In 2014, OmniTrans and the City of San Bernardino introduced the sbX Green Line, the city’s first bus rapid transit line. The 16-mile route includes both median and side-running dedicated transit lanes, center median stations, and new articulated buses with both left- and right-side doors. Critically, the sbX has protection from traffic delay where it…