With so few cars on the road, cars and buses are moving faster in New York City. Some drivers are going too fast, though.
Winnie Hu reports:
Traffic at New York City’s busiest bridges and tunnels has plunged nearly 60 percent.
Rush-hour speeds have soared 288 percent on one of the city’s most clogged arteries — the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — to 52 miles per hour from 13 m.p.h.
According to Hu, the difference on New York City streets during coronavirus stay-at-home orders can also be measured in terms of bus speeds: "The average weekday bus speed rose 7 percent to 8.7 miles per hour from 8.1 miles per hour before the outbreak, according to the transportation authority."
While Hu applies the lessons of New York's current lack of traffic to inform the discussion about the congestion pricing plan proposed for parts of Manhattan, other media observers in the city are using the new conditions to raise awareness about traffic safety enforcement.
Gersh Kuntzman has been providing regular updates on the city's "speeding epidemic," including an article from April 5 reporting a 12 percent increase in speed violations issued by the city's speed cameras. "The 12-plus-percent increase in tickets come as the total number of vehicle miles traveled in the five boroughs is down by 71 percent from that same January baseline, according to data from StreetLight." Kuntzman documented some of the speeding in a video shared on Vimeo.
They're Speeding! from Gersh on Vimeo.
A follow up article by Kuntzman from April 8 notes that New York Police Department officers wrote fewer speeding tickets in March, even as the city's cameras catch more violators: "In March, NYPD officers wrote 346 speeding tickets per day, down 36 percent since January. By comparison, speed cameras caught 13,533 scofflaws on the average day in March, up 20 percent from the January average."
FULL STORY: N.Y.’s Changed Streets: In One Spot, Traffic Speeds Are Up 288%
Depopulation Patterns Get Weird
A recent ranking of “declining” cities heavily features some of the most expensive cities in the country — including New York City and a half-dozen in the San Francisco Bay Area.
California Exodus: Population Drops Below 39 Million
Never mind the 40 million that demographers predicted the Golden State would reach by 2018. The state's population dipped below 39 million to 38.965 million last July, according to Census data released in March, the lowest since 2015.
Chicago to Turn High-Rise Offices into Housing
Four commercial buildings in the Chicago Loop have been approved for redevelopment into housing in a bid to revitalize the city’s downtown post-pandemic.
Google Maps Introduces New Transit, EV Features
It will now be easier to find electric car charging stations and transit options.
Ohio Lawmakers Propose Incentivizing Housing Production
A proposed bill would take a carrot approach to stimulating housing production through a grant program that would reward cities that implement pro-housing policies.
Chicago Awarded $2M Reconnecting Communities Grant
Community advocates say the city’s plan may not do enough to reverse the negative impacts of a major expressway.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
Town of Zionsville
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.