By West Side Rag
You might want to bring your mountaineering gear if you have a city bus trip planned.
Snow banks at bus stops are still an issue Wednesday in New York City and on the Upper West Side, following the blizzard on Sunday.
As first reported by THE CITY on Monday, residents of the five boroughs and elected officials voiced concerns over the number of bus shelters that were still snowed in, forcing riders to take possibly dangerous journeys over the mounds to make it to the doors of the vehicle.
On Monday, city officials estimated that around half of the 3,400 NYC bus shelters had been cleared. In terms of who is responsible for the snow, the New York City Department of Sanitation is in charge of clearing the streets, and it is the Department of Transportation’s responsibility to maintain the bus stops with shelters, but it is the nearest property owner’s job to clear the snow or ice from sidewalks with bus stops that do not have a shelter.
On Wednesday, West Side Rag walked along and near West 72nd Street from Central Park West to Broadway, spotting multiple examples where bus stops were still snowed in.
In the cases where an Upper West Side bus stop had a shelter and the DOT had stepped in, huge mountains of snow had been created in the immediate area to clear the way for the bus.
Another snow storm may hit New York City this weekend, but forecasts as of Wednesday are still unclear.
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This has been the case in the past as well.
There is also an issue with some icy “pedestrian islands”
But bike lanes are clear
NYCDOT should really change its logo to the Transportation Alternatives logo!
And when the “bike” lanes aren’t clear, the e-bike drivers just use the sidewalk. They especially like to “share” the breaks in the snow piles at crosswalks with pedestrians.
They planned ahead for the bike lanes and put no effort into clearing the bus stops. It’s always been this way, and my days of climbing over snow/ice hills are over. If snow plows in other areas are equipped to plow streets w/o blocking driveways why can’t we do that here?
Manhattan has a steam system. Heated streets are not implausible.
Very cool and interesting idea. I wouldn’t want to expend additional energy to heat streets, but if there’s a way to harness and channel existing steam… This seems quite ingenious, Joe!
I have wondered for a while now why heated sidewalks aren’t mandatory on all the new luxury buildings going up. Both my office and my former apartment building installed them and its such a game changer. Sure, it’s a bigger investment but when you think of the equipment and labor (and potential for injury liability), I would have to imagine the cost quickly evens out. Its safer, better for the environment, and there aren’t huge piles of shoveled snow pushed on to the curbline. The building staff loves them, the tenants love them, win-win.
How are they better for the environment than shoveling?
They care more about getting rid of parking minimums so developers can save money.
As ever, a big F you to anyone who uses a wheelchair.
Sincerely,
New York City
Or a walker
Or a stroller.
We need to have “snow overflow” spaces that convert from free parking to snow dumps so that bus stops can be cleared.
Anything to take parking away and spite car drivers.
Josh P.
Interestingly there are a number of food trucks that have situated themselves/parked permanently on the West Side and elsewhere.
They never move.
What are your thoughts?
Food trucks serve more people than free parking spots, they serve locals instead of suburbanites, they provide jobs and pay taxes.
Clearly food trucks serve many people – tourists, workers, residents.
Actually I’d disagree that their primary customers are “locals”.
And it is OK for food trucks to park permanently (which is not permitted)? Surprised that you are Ok with that?
It is about having only the kind of people like them allowed in the community that matters.
Food trucks also park on the avenues which have hours that have commercial or metered parking only. Even when companies like Amazon get designated spots, they still do not use them and instead take up a traffic and parking lane on avenues. This is not about equitable sharing of space, this is a giveaway of our streets to whoever donates enough money to Transportation Alternatives or Open Plans.
Suburbanites who work and do business here pay taxes here as well. If you live in NJ or CT and drive here, you are paying NY income taxes due to the lack of tax reciprocity between the states. Locals and non locals park cars here. I see the slippery slope here with urbanists, yesterday it was street safety, today it is “free parking” spots, tomorrow it is “cut through” traffic (and everyone is cutting through to get somewhere that is not immediately adjacent), the day after that it is turning neighborhoods into de facto feudal manors and 15 minute cities. The us vs. them attitude that Josh is portraying here as someone who has the privilege to live in Manhattan, on the UWS, actually is a bad look.
This is an article about how bus stops in our neighborhood are inaccessible to the people who need them. The people with walkers, wheelchairs, and strollers who can’t get to the busses they depend on are not privileged elites. Repurposing a one or two parking spots per bus stop is not going to result in banning all cars and the oppression of the people who get to drive a car to work instead of taking the bus.
Great job deflecting Josh!
We are literal prisoners because we cannot get out to access the busses (No, I will not wait in a wheelchair in the street. Cars rush by, trucks rush by and want to stop and park at bus stops ALL the time (they ignore the signs saying they cannot do so!) .
It is impossible to get around for people with canes or walkers, as well as wheelchairs.
Even able-bodied folks cannot surmount the huge mounds of ice and snow at curbs and at bus stops. Not to mention that steps in some subways stations have not been cleared, making them extremely risky to navigate.
People could care less if the mobility impaired, wheelchair bound or cane and/or walker users cannot get around. If these folks don’t have someone to shop for them, they have a real issue (Delivery services are not necessarily the answer based on cost or availability).
Meanwhile, you miss medical appointments and tests that could have taken months to get and then take months to reschedule. It’s a real problem.
Irena, I’m so sorry to hear about your predicament. In other places and other times, neighbors pitched in to help in times like this. Where is your bus stop? I’ll be there with a shovel!
Have to clear those bike lanes, keep those priorities straight.
I believe they actually have special sized trucks to plow the bike lanes. Wonder how much that cost.
Put the snow in the parking spaces. There are a lot more of them than there are bike lanes.
There are already parking spaces lost due to snow and that still isn’t enough. The thing with urbanists is that they push too much and now they deserve nothing! Nothing makes them happy. The reason why there was less opposition before was because car drivers aren’t insatiable as urbanists. With urbanists, urbanism is like a church to these people and streetsblog is their watchtower magazine.
There is no amount of non-parking uses for curb that will ever make parkers happy. Curbside dining, bike lanes, a food truck, citibike docks, trash containerization, metered parking – parkers treat every one of them as a malicious attack on their very right to exist – despite the fact that 95%+ of curb space is still dedicated to parking. The minority of people who get free parking never give up a single space to the majority of people who live here. I think there will eventually be an electoral backlash when people realize how little they get from the current street space system.
The majority of people who live here are not angry that people get to park on the streets. The minority of people here are not the car drivers, but rather are the urbanists who are backed by Mark Gorton’s money to push an agenda where they get a city for only the kind of people that they want in it.
The parkers seem pretty angry – if you suggest that maybe 90% of the curb should be parking instead of 95% so that people in wheelchairs can get to the bus, they literally start talking about shadowy billionaires forcing anyone they don’t agree with into feudalism. I would love to turn the temperature down on this topic but there are people who literally see “when it snows, two parking spots per bus stop should be repurposed for snow removal” and respond with a straight face that the next step is Billionaire Urbanists de facto imprisoning anyone “they” don’t agree with.
Tone down the temperature? I have seen urbanists act so manipulative with those who disagree with them to the point where they have made false accusations of assault. That is what happened at a rally outside of Gale Brewer’s office where TransAlt supporters and Sara Lind and EVSA were both at.
Percentages and how you spin them do not tell the full story. What would turn the temperature down on this topic is if urbanists backed down and left the proverbial room and if Mark Gorton stopped funding anti-car causes. Urbanists do not want to turn the temperature down, they want to bully people into silence. Urbanists are nice and friendly in a cunning manipulative way, I have seen that in person. The minute you disagree is when they turn from being nice to bullies in an almost psychopathic way, I have seen it in person.
It has always been the case that when there are big snows, bus stops don’t get cleared initially.
A few thing:
The plows push the snow.
The weather has been cold so no melt.
Nearby buildings especially luxury high-rises with staff should be helping to clear bus stop area – but quite a few either don’t know or don’t wish to.
With the expansion of bike lanes and bike lobby pressure, the City does focus on bike lane clearance before bus stops.
Also issue of lack of snow clearance on sidewalks where there are construction sites or vacant buildings.
Agree, the buildings and stores do not clean whether it’s snowing or not snowing.
Why these buildings and stores are not fined is just unbelievable.
I’m talking the UWS.
It is the DOT’s responsibility to clear the bus stops regardless of your feelings about luxury high rise building staff.
It’s the DOT’s responsibility to clear the bus stops with shelters. The rest is the responsibility of the building mgmt and business owners.
I just want to add that I work on the UES near Park/Madison and there were dozens of men clearing ALL of the sidewalks in front of the buildings and making sure there was access to the bus stops for 2-3 days. Once again, why can’t we do that here?
Look at the pics. I’m unclear on who is responsible for clearing the bench for the Eastbound M72. In the others the sidewalks are clear. It is the snow piles on the streets that make boarding a bus difficult. That is the DOT’s responsibly.
Mamdani is sending out Mental Health Counselors to calm people down from being angry about his mountains of snow
Because why, Mamdani is responsible for the freezing temperature of water?
I give this mayor -F.
Why, because he cleared streets after a significant snowfall?
oh, hon. We’re just getting started.
Not funny.
actually, it’s quite funny. Every funny joke has a kernel of truth.
Mamdani did not even make the buses free as a gesture of apology for this!
Snow Removal at Bus shelters
JCDecaux, a franchisee of Department of Transportation, is responsible for removing snow at the bus shelters. JCDecaux must remove snow from within the bus shelters and three feet around them.
On May 19, 2006, DOT entered into a $1.397 billion 20-year franchise agreement with Cemusa, Inc. to design, construct, install, and maintain coordinated street furniture throughout the City for at least 3,300 bus stop shelters and 330 newsstands. DOT is responsible for overseeing the franchise agreement.
Part of the above contractual agreement is snow removal around bus shelters. If memory serves it is three feet around the shelter.
The compliance is to follow NYC snow removal laws.
JCDecaux owns Cemusa, Inc.
But they’re not responsible for removing the snow WITHOUT shelters. Why can’t we get our act together over here?!
I think that what gets lost on a lot of new yorkers is there is a “cost of doing business” of living in New York City. If you want to live in perfectly manicured Chappaqua, then move there. In New York City, your neighbors are noisy. In New York City, when it’s cold and snowy there is nowhere to put the snow. In New York, City, it’s not as accessible because the sidewalks and transit are over 100 years old. Nobody forces you to live here, stop whining.
All those things are fixable. They aren’t an inherent part of living in New York, they are conscious choices we make.
Nonsense. There is such a thing as social services here. Nobody taking public transit is looking for manicured Chappaqua and one must wonder why it is that a reader is sneering at those of us who are so hampered by ice and snow, bus riders who use walkers and wheelchairs, for starters. We pay taxes, too, just like the car owners who take up space that plowed snow could use. Go live in Chappaqua? Let them eat cake, says that reader.
Agree. Most northern cities have snow on the ground for weeks. Learn to modify for a few days. It has been unusually cold.
NYC used to be colder when it was less developed.
I don’t understand why the city doesn’t heat the sidewalks at bus stops, they could be powered by solar panels atop the bus shelter.
Surely that’s not the best use of funds for the 30+ days a year its cold enough to be useful.
Just have DOT plow the bus stops when they are plowing the streets.
How much money is spent on snow removal versus how much money would the technology cost is the issue.
There are a couple of issues here. And both have to donwith people on foot and/or trying to get to public transportation.
The bus stops and the crosswalks.
Both have mounds of snow in many cases. The bus stops are the responsibility of DOT. The crosswalks are the responsibility of the adjacent building. In NYC property owners are responsible for cleaning 18 inches into the street. Garbage and snow are their responsibility. Snow must be cleared with 4 hours after snow stops falling. PMany buildings follow this and create paths from the front door to the street for their residents. However they often neglect the corner. If the building is at an intersection they have to clear a path in both directions east/west and north/south at least 18 inches. Some are better than others but some intersections are impassable.
Where do you find this 18 inches rule? I found this
https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-01397
Property owners are responsible for clearing the curb cut.
In most of the pics above it seems property owners have complied. The sidewalk side of the bus stops have been cleared. It is the huge mountains of snow on the street that are the problem
These city instructions include
‘Do not shovel snow into the street.’
When one picks up a shovel full of snow from the sidewalk where are they supposed to dump it?
NYC seems to make an assumption that all sidewalks have room to clear a 4 foot strip and use the rest of the sidewalk to pile the snow from clearing that 4 foot strip.
The question is how can you pile that snow bank? Some municipalities state no higher than 3 feet. I do not know what NYC has for the highest allowable bank piled on your sidewalk.
The rare occasion we have large snow storms. I find we have to clear that 4 foot strip a few times.
One from the snowfall and then subsequently when the person clears the snow off their car knocking that snow bank down back onto the cleared area and often putting the snow from their car onto the sidewalk.
The only part I can’t stand is when a parked car digs out and throws snow from the parking space onto your sidewalk. that has happened so far this time .
Fortunately we do not have a fire hydrant in front of our house otherwise I do not think it would be possible to clear without melting the snow or place the snow in a way that would not comply with NYC.
At least we do not have this type of situation often where you get a heavy snowfall that doesn’t melt for a couple weeks.
I think the record is ASP was suspended for 62 days in a row in 1978.
.
NYC does not have restrictions on how high a pile can be. Buffalo is known to have snow piles that last into June!
There is not an 18 inch rule for snow removal beyond the curb.
I think the priority should be the fire hydrants. There are mountains of snow around/on some hydrants. Not good.
Wonder what the UES looks like.
They always get priority.
Someone on Gothamist said they did a good job plowing and clearing the snow over there.
They did a worse job in Queens than both the UES and UWS!
Yes, they did a poor job in clearing a path at the bus stops.
The crooks walks, need Tobe shoveled as well. You need to walk into traffic to cross streets.
Blizzard?
Regarding the last photo—the M7 and M11 stop near 72nd and Amsterdam: It sure looks as if the area between the shelter and the bus lane is clear, and that someone waiting in the shelter could easily get on the bus. The snow has been piled just north of the bus stop. Am I missing something?
The stop near 72nd and Amsterdam has a shelter so the city was responsible for clearing it. The other stops shown do not have shelters. It’s up to the building mgmt or the business owner to clear a pathway those bus stops located in front of their buildings.
Why wasn’t Mamdani out there shoveling? Street corners are still a mess three days later.
Am I really the only person out there who thinks the city did an impressive job clearing the snow overall? We don’t usually have a massive snowfall followed by a week of sub-freezing temperatures that prevent ANY melting, and of course things haven’t been perfect, but city workers have continued to chip away at the snow and make paths at intersections and bus stops and they seem to be making steady progress to me.
Agree. This whole comment section is so unhinged.
Cranky UWSiders.
Agree!! Plowing the entire city is a mammoth job and the city has done a great job all things considered
You normally have to get up the icy four foot ‘hill ‘ by the bus stop that goes from the sidewalk to the entrance of the bus …….?!!!!!
If the people cleaning the streets won’t remove the ‘hills’ then the dept. of transportation should get some other organizations on board with this !! Very frustrating and dangerous for passengers!