At the last meeting of the Green Committee of Community Board 7 of the Upper West Side we watched a documentary about the transformation of Curitiba, Brazil.  It’s called “A Convenient Truth” and I highly recommend it, though you must not watch the trailer on Youtube which makes it seem like little but talking heads with cheesy music in the background.  

“A Convenient Truth” describes Curitiba’s instituting the best of cutting-edge urban design, and doing so with such speed and executive authority that in one example residents went to sleep beside a traffic-choked noisy nightmare of a main thoroughfare, and woke up to a pedestrianized street with benches and birds singing. The pedestrianized street quickly became a success with business owners (because people buy more when they are strolling than when they are driving by at 30 mph) and residents.  

Here are a couple other examples:  Curitiba took away traffic lanes from cars in order to create one of the most advanced bus rapid transit systems (BRTs) I’ve yet seen. The BRT was much cheaper to build than a subway, and it now moves a huge proportion of the City, cuts down on air and noise pollution, lessens traffic and helps people get from one part of the City to another faster and with less aggravation (less traffic jams and noisy streets).  

Curitiba paid residents of an easily flooded urban lowland to move to higher ground, and then restored the flood plain to a wetland that protects the City from dangerous floods.  The wetland and flood plain became part of a huge park that offers recreation and green space.  

Note that there could be environmental justice aspects to this action: I would like to know what the class was of the residents of the flood plain, and if the City paid the flood plain residents adequately for their dislocation and displacement to other neighborhoods.  If those issues were treated with sensitivity and justice, then this big new park - where people eat their lunches, canoe and picnic while the wildlife habitat filters flood waters safely and saves the city money - is a true accomplishment.  

Overall, A Convenient Truth describes can be done when a government decides to use the best of modern urban design to make itself more livable.          

My friend, Julie Margolies, came to me one day and said, “the intersection near my kids’ school is really dangerous. What can we do about it?” We met on the corner of 95th and Amsterdam and witnessed what it was like to cross this awful intersection. It was especially daunting to cross with a stroller or a young (read: short and hard to see) child in tow. Julie took the initiative to write a letter to Gale Brewer and ask for a Leading Pedestrian Interval and signage to alert drivers of a delayed green. Julie is willing to organize her school and get a petition started. This is the way to ask for change. I hope others will do the same. Thanks Julie!

February 5, 2009

Dear Councilmember Brewer:

I write concerning a dire safety issue in your district that needs to be addressed. As the mother of three young children, two of whom attend The Studio School on 95th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, I witness this frightening situation multiple times per day.

As you are likely well aware, the intersection at West 95th Street and Amsterdam Avenue is dangerous for pedestrians. This intersection’s traffic pattern is unusual in that traffic travels west on 95th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus and east on 95th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. What results is a deadly convergence of traffic in the crosswalk at Amsterdam Avenue. The situation is exacerbated by the facts that 96th Street is a major crosstown thoroughfare, and that 95th Street is a major outlet for cars coming off the West Side Highway.

As I mentioned, my children attend school on 95th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus. We and many other families from our school regularly cross this intersection at Amsterdam Avenue multiple times a day, with young children in tow. Many parents, including me, are often pushing strollers. At busy times of the day, cars routinely block the crosswalk so that pedestrians are unable to cross in the crosswalk and must walk into traffic just to get across the street. Even more frightening, drivers often catapult into the furthest lane of traffic without looking – e.g., a driver coming east on 95th Street wants to continue east on 96th Street and swings into the lane furthest to the right, and vice versa for those traveling west – nearly hitting adults and young children. I have had to stop short with a stroller or pull my children out of the way of cars on more than one occasion when cars suddenly barreled around standing traffic into the lane where I was crossing. Families at our school routinely experience the same, and we are not the only school on the block.

It seems that the situation could be helped considerably by installing a Leading Pedestrian Interval to give pedestrians a head start getting across the street, with signage alerting drivers to the delay for pedestrians. A more ambitious change that would eliminate the problem entirely would be to direct traffic eastbound on West 95th Street from Riverside to Central Park West.

I am confident I can organize other parents to show their support by signing a petition or writing letters, if you think such efforts would be useful to persuade the Department of Transportation to make either enormously effective change.

Thank you very much for your assistance. I look forward to hearing from you.