By Gus Saltonstall
Every Upper West Side elected official recently signed onto a letter urging the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) to speed up its plan for “daylighting” intersections across the city. Daylighting entails removing parking spots closest to an intersection in an effort to improve sight lines for vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians.
Councilmember Gale Brewer penned the letter to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on May 7. It includes signatures of support from Councilmember Shaun Abreu, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, and Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell.
“We are writing in support of recent community-led efforts for universal daylighting at intersections across New York City,” Brewer’s letter reads. “There have been far too many crash fatalities and serious injuries that could have been prevented by better sight lines at intersections….We ask that the Department of Transportation take immediate action to improve safety across the city by universally daylighting intersections using hardened materials such as boulders, planters, and bike corrals,” the letter continues.
The city has already agreed to daylight intersections across the five boroughs, but Brewer and the other Upper West Side elected officials want the DOT to move its implementation timeline up.
In November 2023, Mayor Eric Adams stated his administration would daylight 1,000 intersections in the city over the course of the next year. That announcement followed a new law in April 2023, which requires the DOT to implement daylighting at no less than 100 intersections across the city per year. The bill, which passed in the City Council 40-7, specified, though, that the DOT would first study “where daylighting barriers are most effective and develop criteria for their implementation,” and that the actual implementation would not begin until 2025.
The seven “no” votes in the City Council and initial opposition to the idea of daylighting had to do with worries over the loss of parking and that daylighting intersections, without replacing the space with some sort of physical obstruction, could actually encourage drivers to make even faster turns around corners.
Brewer’s letter also followed a resolution passed this spring by Upper West Side Community Board 7 in support of daylighting intersections. More than a dozen other community boards across the city have passed similar resolutions.
Parking within 20 feet of an intersection is actually illegal in New York State, but city officials previously opted out of that law.
Supporters of daylighting intersections point to Hoboken as an example of how the strategy makes streets safer.
Hoboken began aggressively removing parking spaces directly adjacent to intersections in 2017, and the city has not had a single traffic death in the seven years since, while also seeing a 30 percent decrease in pedestrian injuries caused by vehicles over the period.
Brewer’s letter to the DOT recommended that the city use funds through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which established the Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program that provides $5 billion in funding over a five-year period that could be used to help pay for the daylighting intersections initiative.
“In light of these Community Board resolutions and the Mayor’s announcement to daylight 1,000 intersections in 2024, we ask the NYC Department of Transportation to begin implementing daylighting at intersections immediately with a goal of daylighting all intersections as quickly as possible,” Brewer concluded her letter.
A Department of Transportation spokesperson told West Side Rag the following when asked about the push to speed up the daylighting timeline: “This administration is using every tool available to implement safer street designs, including a historic commitment to improve visibility at a record high 1,000 intersections through daylighting.”
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Do it!
I live on an UWS block that has daylighting installed (94th St) and it’s absolutely mind-blowing to me that every block in the city doesn’t have this.
Just raise the damn crosswalks.
Why not do both? It’s always a bit terrifying to peak around the parked cars especially when walking with a stroller. The raised crosswalks would help discourage speeding on residential streets which is rampant.
Daylighting works when you have intersections without stop signs or traffic lights or at angled intersections where visibility is limited. Most of the intersections on the UWS are signaled intersection where the overwhelming majority of people you have to be concerned about are crossing against the light which is technically illegal. Daylighting in this instance won’t help make streets safer, they’ll just spite car drivers. The same people pushing to remove parking with daylighting are the same people that have no problems with dining sheds at those same intersections with WORSE visibility than a parked car.
While I agree with you about dining sheds being worse visibility than parked cars, you are pretty much wrong in everything you have said here. First, to stick with the dining sheds – the new rules for the sheds require the spacing at intersections to fit daylit intersections. Second, and most importantly, daylighting an intersection is not to give a driver a clearer view of a jaywalker, it is to give a turning driver a clearer view of pedestrians near the intersection, so you can see pedestrians that might be entering the intersection earlier. These pedestrians, mind you, would have the right of way. Most pedestrians injured and killed at intersections are not jaywalking; they are struck by a driver making a turn.
That’s why we have leading pedestrian intervals, that’s why drivers should check their sides at intersections as they already have to do so for bikes. Seeing pedestrians which may not head your way doesn’t help.
When a vehicle is making a turn onto a street where pedestrians have a green walk light, the pedestrians and the vehicle are not readily visible to each other. It has little to do with the presence or absence of traffic lights or stop signs.
If one scans their mirrors and their sides the way they’re supposed to with a car, pedestrians are visible.
Not on a dark rainy Manhattan night when the pedestrian is wearing dark clothing. That’s why I wear white coats, so cars can see me.
I was biking with the light up riverside when I was struck by a car that made a left turn. I was not visible to him due to cars parked by the corner. Daylighting is absolute common sense.
I’m sorry you were injured. Are you saying the driver of the car ran a red light while making their left hand turn? That’s all can figure since you had the light.
So you are biking with the light up Riverside, isn’t the car supposed to be making a left turn at the light supposed to be stopped? Someone making a left turn on a red light is a different ballgame which daylighting wouldn’t solve.
Part of the logic behind daylighting is to help solve the enforcement problem. People run red lights, all the time. Out of towners don’t know that turning right on red is illegal here. Pedestrians don’t always wait for the walk signal! 99%+ of the time when this happens there isn’t a cop around to write a ticket. Given that Upper West Siders are and always will be imperfect human beings, how do we keep everyone safe? Daylighting is one way to do that.
It is very clear that turning right on red is illegal here, there’s signs conspicuously posted to that effect. Most pedestrians who don’t wait for the walk signal use common sense. I agree that people are imperfect human beings, but your assertion that Upper West Siders are “imperfect” human beings shows that this isn’t necessarily about keeping everyone safe, more like keeping people that the powers that be deem unworthy of being on the Upper West Side out.
As “very clear” as you think it is, there are still a huge number of drivers making a right on red. Most of them I see have out of state plates (if they have plates).
How exactly do you get to “ more like keeping people that the powers that be deem unworthy of being on the Upper West Side out” from his statement? He is trying to keep out the evil people who park within a car length of an intersection? Are they a protected class? His point is that, through engineering, we can increase safety for ALL without decreasing the safety or security of anyone. What is so wrong about that?
The thing is the anti-car folks will never be happy no matter how many safety improvements are done. We also know that the anti-car folks want NYC to be one where the people they deem worthy of being here can access the UWS. I see it myself when they claim to be working class champions but look down upon actual working class people. It is a big problem in gentrified NYC as much as you may not like to think it is.
UWS Dad,
Not seeing rampant speeding during the day at all.
Night may be a different situation?
Or may depend on the definition?
Is rampant speeding 27 MPH (25 MPH speed limit) or 35 MPH?
Actually at this point, it is e-bikes and mopeds that are speeding.
I don’t make a habit of carrying a radar gun with me but I frequently see drivers floor it to make it through a light. Raised crosswalks would discourage speeding from mopeds and bikes as well.
I was just driving down Riverside Blvd last week thinking why is it legal to park adjacent to crosswalks, I can’t see anyone coming off the sidewalk. I agree there should be a considerable buffer between parking spaces and crosswalks and also taxis should not be allowed to pick up in that zone either ( I know.. good luck enforcing that). But we need to start somewhere and educate the city on what is and it NOT permitted. If we want some really easy pics just go down Freedom place where cars park literally ON the corner between curb cuts. I once asked an NYPD traffic cop why they don’t get ticketed.. and he said we can’t ticket since no rules are posted in area prohibiting such parking.. TOTAL JOKE. PUT UP SOME SIGNS and paint and lets get pedestrian safety back to being the #1 priority over a few street parking spots!
Pedestrians crossing Riverside with the light are crossing when traffic on Riverside is stopped.
In that circumstance daylighting won’t make a difference vis a vis cars.
Daylighting is about a pedestrian crossing at a green and a car, also with the green, turning onto the street the pedestrian is crossing. It’s what lets the driver see the pedestrian since both have the green.
Every intersection doesn’t have to be daylighted, the ones where pedestrians and turning cars both have greens are the ones that need it.
Here’s what’s going on with that extra space, NYPD will just use that to dump cars that are inventoried and kept for whatever police purposes. There’s already a car like that on 76th and Riverside where a loading zone was put and took parking away.
That car was abandoned there and marked by the Department of Sanitation for pick up. It has nothing to do with NYPD.
I’m calling BS Vito, The 20 Pct is on W82 between Amsterdam Ave and Columbus. No way they are keeping a vouchered car that far away.
Too bad I can’t post pics on this site. Go to 76th and Riverside on the NE corner and see for yourself.
A Police Officer has to physically account for every vehicle vouchered at the Precinct, they have to see it personally, at the start of every shift, So they are checked 3 times per day. No 20 Pct Cop is going blocks away, cars are kept on West 82 or Columbus Ave. A vehicle vouchered by the NYPD will have a blue foil sticker with NYPD and a bar code on it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they are put farther given the new mandate to ensure that vehicles are not angle parked near precincts.
It sounds like those vehicles are parked in an intersection, which violates NYC Traffic Rule 4-08(e)(4). No sign is required for that violation, just like no sign is required for blocking a hydrant or crosswalk.
This is a brilliant idea. “Sight line” why did NYC opted out of this?
NYC should have NO Parking within 20 feet of “ALL” intersection!
We have it in my two towns upstate here in New York…. Lake Placid, New York and Pelham Manor, New York
It is the LAW!
These towns also have adequate parking. There are suburban towns that also don’t have daylighting.
Hoboken does this. It makes sense to me.
So, is it now time to again bring up the idea of residential parking permits? How do we get this under way? We are the only major city without these permits. We need to keep the shrinking supply of parking spaces for those who actually live here. $300-400 per year (perhaps based on weight of car, therefore road wear and tear) seems a fair price. If you can’t squeeze that out of your budget, you probably can’t afford to keep a car. If you look out the window in the West 70s in the middle of the night, you will see how few cars are actually there. Those are the people who live here, plus a few guests. I keep a car parked on the street about 3-4 days a week in summer, and would be happy to pay this. There are many easy ways for guests, workers, & contractors to receive temporary permits. Is there political will? Where do we start ?
Attend the CB7 meeting on Tuesday night 5/14 where they will be discussing parking permits. Go to their website for the details.
Residential parking permits have never been tried before in a city where the majority of people take public transit and do not own cars. This seems like a huge giveaway of public space to people who “keep a car parked on the street about 3-4 days a week in summer” so they can commute out of town to a country house. Why should they pay $300 a year when people are paying $1,584 per year for the bus?
Not sure where your $1584. comes from. I pay to take public transportation daily, can’t calculate how much exactly the way you did. I also pay huge real estate taxes every year, as a proud NYC resident. The resident parking permit would be extra on top of everything else I pay. Please explain your thought process.
$132 (monthly metrocard) times 12 is $1,584.
Josh — OK, thank you. I probably pay as much if not more, but since it goes directly to my credit card each time I “zap” the screen, I don’t have a monthly total. Also, I never take taxis or Ubers. I ride the buses and subways exclusively.
Car drivers pay a lot more for insurance, fees etc. Those who have direct access to a car are now the majority, but you wouldn’t know that if you didn’t step out of the gentrified NYC bubble.
Residential parking permits AND enforce existing laws keeping bikes and e-bikes from running red lights, going the wrong way on one way streets!
Resident permits would not be the silver bullet you think it is. Wait until even more parking is lost and those with permits with increased prices get attacked as elitists who are privileged and shouldn’t have street parking at all. Like how it was before 1950 as urbanists like to say. Not only that those pushing for resident permits are having one group of UWS car drivers turned against another group of UWS car drivers. You will not win a policy debate against well funded urbanists if you do that.
Boston’s even more “progressive” than NYC and resident permit parking works quite well there.
Other cities have higher car ownership rates and the way garages are makes it workable. Also there’s legal arguments against permits that haven’t been tested, since there’s many NJ workers and visitors on the UWS, it includes the dormant commerce clause.
There is a CB 7 meeting tomorrow where a presentation will be made.
The Committee will meet at 250 West 87 Street at 6:30 PM.
This can’t come soon enough, need daylighting at all intersections
Actually as a pedestrian, I find it helpful to have a parked vehicle as a buffer.
I think raised crosswalks would be better.
My guess is that “daylighting” will just mean more pedestrians darting into traffic away from the crosswalk.
Next need: protect pedestrians from Citibikers….
Citibike riders and bikes are sacrosanct.
It’s absolutely absurd to eliminate parking close to intersections without creating a physical obstruction that will prevent the inevitable “temporary” parking of cars, for-hire vehicles and delivery vehicles. How about pair of vertical metal poles? That will also deter motorists from snaking around the corner to beat crossing pedestrians.
Hopefully it will include some sort of an impediment, there are some (limited) areas in Manhattan where DOT has installed a bike rack or just dropped a large rock in the daylighting area to discourage illegal parking.
Who is enforcing that these are not used as parking spots for deliveries? If this happens, it absolutely needs to include physical barriers so that a) it actually is a barrier, b) it doesn’t further encourage bikers breaking the law, and c) it doesn’t become “special “ parking which never gets ticketed. Also, if it’s planters can we PLEASE put in native perennial flowers that need minimal maintenance and will benefit the bees?
I certainly agree to the proposed law about cars parking close to intersections
I street park and generally don’t want to see parking spaces lost, but can’t say I’d be mad if they did this. It would definitely make crossing intersections safer, especially for kids (some blocks have dining sheds on both sides and crossing those intersections feels treacherous). I DO agree that without a physical obstruction in the daylighting zone (boulders, bike racks, etc.), these spaces will just become free parking spaces for scofflaws. Also, I don’t see why one-way streets need the parking spaces removed at the tail end of the intersections.
I love the idea of bike racks, and they are a nice addition on 3rd Avenue with the new bike lane. But I think that daylighting should have shorter barriers. I like the boulders.
While they’re addressing this, I’d like to see taxis ticketed for stopping right in the crosswalks to let their passengers off, forcing crossing pedestrians to walk around them and sometimes into traffic.
The attitude seems to be “I go all out to accommodate my passengers so they’ll tip me well, and I don’t care how I inconvenience or endanger people who aren’t paying me.”
Surely it’s illegal for them to park right in the crosswalk? It happens a lot.
(I feel great sympathy for taxi drivers, except when they do this.)
While implementing daylighting, perhaps the pols should consider removing the VERY dangerous restaurant sheds that are directly adjacent to crosswalks (see W 84th and BWay, for example). Near zero visibility for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, etc
The biggest street obstruction for vision are restaurant sheds. You absolutely cannot see the street with them present! But this whole movement is not really about visibility. It’s about getting private cars off the streets and out of NY! That’s the plan. All the DOT wants as dictated to them by lobby Trans Alt are bikes of all kinds (unregulated) with car share companies and mass transit. If you need your own car and park it on the street cause Lord knows there are hardly any garages, you’re told you are storing your private stuff for free on their public streets. So…..this daylighting is frankly part of that movement. I’d advise those for whom a car is essential to be at the Community Board meeting tomorrow night-details above. Express yourself and fight for permits.
You cannot complain about TransAlt and then push policies that seek to have one group of car drivers turn against another. Only 24% of UWS households own cars, workers, visitors, etc. that come to the UWS and live elsewhere add to the demand for parking spaces, you cannot force all of them onto transit and you cannot have a policy where you get parking in your neighborhood but you cannot park in any other neighborhood. Pushing policies which turn one group of drivers against another only causes urbanists to laugh at those who criticize them and there’s strength in numbers against urbanists which you don’t have.
Agreed, There are a LOT of dining sheds in no parking zones. If you can’t see over a car, you definitely can’t see over a shed!
Nearly killed 3 times by e-bike drivers running a red (yes the same light) at 20 MPH while a big van obscured their view of the crosswalk and me.
So a good idea, but not enough since it still doesn’t electronically speed limit throttle e-bikes to 10 MPH.
Hopefully daylighting will include a prohibition on locating large construction dumpsters at corners as well. Since these containers require DOT permits, it shouldn’t be that hard to do.
Each parking space the city removes is another lost customer, tourist, and another vacant storefront. It’s the pedestrians that cross illegally is the problem.
If you lived in the neighborhood you might feel differently
So basically the UWS should be a defacto gated community for those who can afford a 15% broker fee and pay $3500 for a 1 bedroom? Let’s face it, this isn’t about safety, congestion or the environment, this is about making the UWS and other neighborhoods in NYC a college campus for those who graduated college but don’t want to give up the lifestyle.
Gated communities don’t have subway systems. I totally agree the rent is way too expensive, we should be changing the zoning so more housing can be built throughout the city. That’s the only way to make housing more affordable.
There are people who argued that Soho was a gated community when arguing in favor of a rezoning of Soho. Soho has even more subway lines than the UWS does and Soho is not as large as the UWS.
Make sure you come out tomorrow to the CB7 meeting on resident parking permits, a plan explicitly designed to ban people who can’t afford to live here from using parking spots in the neighborhood!
The thing is the area workers negatively impacted don’t have time to make these events or are not aware of these events in most cases. I am one of the only area workers that knows this is going on.
Tourists don’t park. Most customers don’t park. The vast majority of commerce is based on foot traffic. If you do drive to shop, unless you are parking in a garage you’d have to have almost limitless time to find a legal parking space in a commercial area (most metered spots don’t turn over quickly).
Even if the vast majority of commerce is based on foot traffic. There’s a substantial off peak crowd that drives to the UWS to take advantage of what the UWS has to offer whether its the Beacon Theatre, restaurants etc. They’re not taking a bus and a train that only runs every hour to access the UWS or taking 3 trains to access the UWS. They’re either sticking to Midtown and not making the trek up to the UWS or not coming into Manhattan at all.
The Beacon Theater has 2900 seats. Walk around the UWS on a Saturday evening – any evening – and guess how many legal parking spaces on side streets are available for drivers arriving around 6:00-7:00. There are meters on the avenues – they don’t automatically vacate in the evening. So of the 2900, how many are able to park on the street? 100 maybe? I’m willing to bet most of them wind up in garages. (And Sundays are worse since virtually every spot is good all day so there’s very little turnover.)
Tourists, etc would not be impacted. Most all residential parking permits in other cities allow anyone to park for up to 4 hours. That allows visitors to go to restaurants, shows, etc. That’s not a reason to postpone this. What this prevents is people coming to our neighborhood, parking for 8-10 hours while they go other places.
There’s people parking 8-10 hours on the UWS who work here, who spend money here, who have ties here even though they don’t live here.
So dramatic. The vast majority of people, certainly tourists, are not parking. They are using public transportation and taxis. The city needs to get rid of as many parking spaces as it can.
Lack of “daylighting’ makes jogging far scarier. Can’t they just conform NYC to NYS law?
No
Even my 3 year old knows how to look around the car parked on the corner to make sure it’s safe to cross! Daylighting is ridiculous and just part of the TransAlt lobbies never ending push to ban cars from the city and make lives even more miserable for the families that rely on street parking and can’t afford $1500/month for a garage. This is shameful and pathetic. There are millions of things more important to be focusing on.
Would putting Citi Bike docking stations in the daylighting areas make any sense? It would give the precious real estate a dual purpose while freeing up some parking spaces that are currently occupied by Bikes located in the street.
Would that result in too few bikes scattered in too many locations to be practically serviced? I don’t know.
Separately, regarding the raised crosswalk idea, I think we should contemplate unintended consequences such as slowing emergency vehicles, complicating snow removal, etc. If it turns out to be a net positive despite the downsides, that’s fine, but it would be a shame to rush in without full consideration.
Put bollards in the reclaimed corner spaces.
Putting an infinite amount of Citibike stations at EVERY daylighted crosswalk is a fantasy that isn’t feasible on so many levels.
Raising EVERY crosswalk is just as senseless without taking into account not only the reasons you mentioned but also road repair and maintenance. Raised crosswalks might work well in a one-saloon town and a half-mile Main St but NYC is far more complicated than that.
About time?
Perfect spots for Ubers to wait and delivery vehicles to park.
Daylighting at intersections is going to turn that space into a loading/unloading zone for delivery trucks (that are typically much taller than cars) where there are business especially. Right now what seems to occur is delivery vehicles first park in front of fire hydrants, than start double parking that space will most likely be used the same way.
What I find is the outdoor restaurant “sheds” often block my view as a pedestrian or driver or the double parked. delivery truck on the corner.
If they want to daylight than they must make it so a vehicle can’t park there with some sort of barrier (raised curb, etc) and enforce the double parking near intersections.
Adding a related issue:
Vehicles are supposed to stop at a turn to allow pedestrians to cross. (Most but not all vehicles do stop)
But though vehicles have stopped – bicycles come whizzing by, endangering the pedestrians who are crossing.
Car owner here all for this as long as the city enforces that these areas remain clear. I work in an area of Brooklyn that installed these and they are loading zones for Amazon and parking areas for bikes. Not exactly the point.
The point is to make you either sell your car or leave.
I’m all for creating safe space near NYC’s pedestrian zones. It’s unbelievable what motorists do, including standing in a walk space when the walk light is active. Or moving their vehicle right into the walk lane while walkers are crossing. The taxi cars are the worst… making U-turns in intersections. And fast too. Meanwhile dining sheds, esp on sidewalks with their plant pots and clients waiting to be seated leave less space for walkers. At times forcing walkers onto the bike lanes or streets. It’s a wild city!