West End Avenue was redesigned from 72nd street to 106th last year, and locals clearly have a wide range of opinions about it. The community board created an online survey in March, and has posted the responses in a document we’ve pasted below (it’s also available in a pdf here).
The changes were spurred by a series of deadly crashes on West End last year. Lane lines were changed to reduce traffic from four to two lanes — one in each direction — new turning lanes were created and concrete medians were installed at 95th and 97th to reduce the crossing distance and make drivers take more careful turns. Left-hand turns were also banned at some intersections.
The survey results are presented in two sections. Users were presented with statements about the redesign and asked if they agree. And then they were asked to present comments about their feelings.
The agree-disagree section indicates that the changes have made some pedestrians feel safer but have frustrated drivers.
About half of the respondents said making the avenue go one way in each direction had made them feel safer, and just over 50% of respondents said they felt safer at 95th and 97th street, the site of two fatal crashes last year (in both cases more than 25% of respondents said they neither agreed nor disagreed). About 54% of respondents said they were moderately or extremely concerned about traffic congestion on the avenue since the changes.
The comments section has a very wide range of opinions; there are more than 300 comments.
Several people say that the area from 95th to 97th street, where two people were killed last year, remains extremely treacherous because of traffic to and from the West Side Highway. And others want more changes to other high-traffic intersections like 86th street. There are hundreds of comments, and they take very different stances on the redesign. The three below, for instance, were
The community board plans to look more closely at the data, and may try to present the findings in “a way that makes more sense,” said board member Richard Robbins.
The city Department of Transportation is also checking it out, a spokesperson wrote. “We are aware of the survey and are reviewing the results. DOT will also be doing our own evaluation of the West End Avenue project, which is typical of any safety improvement project.”
We’ll update readers when we hear the date and location of any meetings on the survey.
The redesign is a big improvement — though this should be framed less as a popularity contest than as a question of whether it has reduced crashes and injuries.
The answer to that seems to be yes!
As a driver, I hate it, as the single lane has backed up traffic considerably. But as a pedestrian, who crosses those blocks every morning to walk my daughter to camp, it’s a huge safety improvement, and that’s far more important to me. It actually looks nice too, although I’d like to see more foliage on the median. It could be our own mini-Park Avenue!
As a driver I don’t mind it. No more swerving around cars making left turns every other block.
Cooincidentally, I was reading Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” this morning. She’s got plenty to offer on street design.
screw the cars!
Is that Anti Automobile club of America?
Change is not always good. The intellectually challenged leftie loons who simply won’t see the damage they do, have now with this redesigned avenue, (along with “citibikes”), given reasonable folks yet more impetus to leave this once great city. They won’t stop until they’ve turned NYC into another Detroit.
I thought all the people who hated living here left. A long time ago. Are you planning on coming back?
Oh…..So you loons DO see what damage you do, and then all of you in synched chorus agree with the disintegration of this city? Nice…..
How is it possible that you are so out of touch?
Market-rate housing only available to the wealthiest 1% of citizens— a well-known symptom of urban blight, indicating that people are choosing to leave.
Not that you’ve ever visited Detroit (I have, many times), but they did the exact opposite: The tore down swaths of the city to build freeways. How would you feel if we just tore down everything along Amterstam Ave to build a new north-south expressway? I mean, the Henry Hudson Parkways is pretty congested and we could use the extra capacity. Would that make you more or less likely to stay on the UWS?
Strangely, I think Detroit is actually what happens when you focus everything around cars and the auto industry. This is the exact opposite. Nice try, though.
Right… the “once-great” city where you were twice as likely to be killed by a car, when Central Park was in shambles, when the Subway was dangerous, when crime was sky-high.
In all seriousness, I simply don’t understand this nostalgia for an objectively worse city.
I know — First you put in left-turn lanes, and then you make bicycles available to people to get around the city, and next thing you know your whole city is bankrupt.
Why can’t everyone else see the connection? Thanks for pointing this out!
Cato:
AS ALWAYS, CONCISE BUT ON-TARGET!
It boggles the mind to think that some can interpret re-designing the traffic on West End (and, hopefully, SLOWING the 18-wheeler and tourist bus jockeys who think WEA is a highway) and putting in CitiBike as a sign that we have become Detroit!!
Of course, there really is no point in trying to argue with crazies.
As is said, “Argue with a crazy and people will soon fail to see the distinction”
Could someone please tell me which corner that is on the upper left side of the photo? I’ve never seen anything like that here. It almost looks like suburbia.
Re: “It almost looks like suburbia.”
Oh, you mean it is:
a) a four-lane car-choked blacktop surrounded on both sides by tacky strip malls and their 300-vehicle parking lots;
b) or two-lane sidewalk-less streets on whose length are strung out ecologically-disastrous single-family “Little boxes…all made out of ticky-tacky” (as the late GREAT Pete Seeger once sang) and each landscaped to scream “mine is better than yours!”
Perhaps take another look!
I have no idea what you’re talking about scooterstan. Thank you everyone else for the replies and the link for Pomader Walk. I grew up in an area full of houses of that style and yes it is charming!
It’s the southeast corner of West 94th Street and West End Avenue. It’s part of Pomander Walk. It’s utterly charming, isn’t it!
95th. That’s Pomander Walk: https://www.westsiderag.com/2011/07/06/the-english-country-village-inside-the-upper-west-side
We responded at the same time! I thought it was West 94th. But I’m willing to concede to West 95th. Either way, it’s Pomander Walk and quite lovely!
Jinx!
I support these changes. Hopefully the redesign will make West End Avenue safer for ALL users. West End Avenue goes through a very residential area and should not be a highway to maximize vehicle traffic flow.
NIMSY
Bring back the four lanes and make WEA flow again.Stop left turns from east bound streets that are exits of the Westside
Highway. If it’s still on the books, prohibit commercial traffic
on WEA, and most importantly, arrest anyone who hits and
kills a human being with any kind of vehicle (car, truck, bike,
etc.) for vehicular HOMICIDE! I’ve been crossing WEA several
times a day since 1937.
The drivers are frustrated? Poor babies, totally defenseless and unprotected as they are, it must be so tough for them!
In the ongoing battle of drivers v. pedestrians in the city, I just want to say that I live on the UWS, own a car and drive in and outside of the city. Before all drivers are chastised, please know that being a driver has made me a much better, and more aware, pedestrian–one who obeys the traffic and walk/don’t walk signs.
I have a few non-driving friends, who act with impunity when crossing the streets. I believe they do this
because they can only see things from a pedestrian’s
POV, while my behavior reflects both perspectives.
Re West End Ave, I’m on it quite often. Yes, the traffic is slower with the new lane restrictions. But if it’s working and there are fewer accidents and fatalities, then so be it. A very small price to pay in the name of public safety.
She we encourage more people to get cars?
I strongly agree. Same goes for pedestrians and cyclists, cyclists and motorists — nobody has to be “versus” anybody out there.
I like the redesign. Left turn lanes make sense. But what we really need is a big sign for when the NJ Drivers get off the GW – no right turns on red in NYC! My two cents.
The new design is a good first step. I live on West End Avenue at 73rd St. One lane of traffic and “turning lanes” is an excellent idea. However I have witnessed cars,taxis, trucks, in the turning lanes fail to wait for oncoming traffic to pass before executing their turn. Many times, to beat the oncoming traffic, they accelerate to avoid a collision with a car, but fail to yield to pedestrians crossing with the light. Failing to yield to pedestrians or allow oncoming traffic the right of way is a traffic violation. Too many motorists are not aware of this rule or if they are, do not obey it. We need more enforcement of this rule to educate those who violate it. I’d like to see more traffic cameras in place at critical intersections. They are badly needed at 72nd and West End Avenue. Also at 73rd and 75th, where there is a school. Let’s take this improvement to the next level and use some common sense engineering to make a good thing better.
I missed the official survey but here’s my two cents:
Cent #1. Since nothing is lost in nature, has anyone thought where the traffic overflow goes and what happens there (hint Broadway traffic jams) or do we all somehow find a way to skip over Broadway?
Cent #2. Who ever came up with a need to encourage double parking as a benefit from the double wide single lanes?
The answer to you cent #1 is induced demand. Reducing traffic capacity induces more people to switch modes. No doubt some people who live on or near WEA and used to drive have switched to transit or bikes after their commute was slowed down to the point of being on par with the other modes.
These improvements are welcome but are not enough. I have lived here 35 years, and am an avid walker, as well as a driver. I used to worry a lot about crime years ago, now I worry about being hit by a car instead. There is a lack of traffic cops, and a lack of enforcement of drivers who risk pedestrian lives by often not yielding. No high fives for the pedestrians either. I’ve seen people cross the street against the light while texting. Sheer idiocy which in my opinion, should result in a traffic ticket-but no such thing. No cops available-too busy writing tickets on parked cars to stuff the city’s coffers. While leaving the rest to the wild west of the streets. Can a densely overcrowded city where planning went out about a century ago-be all things to all people-cars, citibikes, pedestrians, ambulances, trucks, double-parked cars, bike lanes often empty with delivery men on the opposite side of the street? It no longer ranks a controlled chaos-the efforts to control it are not enough by a long shot.
How was this survey publicized? I live off WEA and never heard anything about it.
West Side Rag posted a link a while back.
I agree with others that the data should speak for itself, not a survey.
That said, I like the change, if only because it got a fresh layer of pavement. Bikes have short wheelbases and generally no suspension, so riding over the old potholes was brutal. Now I have a nice smooth surface AND a space where I generally don’t have to worry about getting hit by cars. Of course I still need to use the lane to get around double-parked cars, but that’s true anywhere in the city.
I would have like a protected bike lane instead of a “double-parking lane.” With the 14-15 year old children riding their bikes, I’d like them to have some more protection from cars.
As a driver and resident on WEA, the new lanes are a huge improvement….plenty of room to double park without blocking the main lane and the left turn lanes work equally well.
what happened to the ‘no commercial traffic’ signs that used to be at all the corners on West End Ave.? It seems that no one knows this is a non- commercial street.
I am very concerned about what will happen here when construction begins on the huge addition to 711 Amsterdam Ave. The building stretches an entire block on Amsterdam,from 94th to 95th Streets. Its underground parking garage has entrances and exits mid block between West End Ave and Riverside Drive on both 94th and 95th Streets and it shares the corner of Amsterdam and 95th with PS75 and the West Side Highway exit.