Walking Is Transportation

UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR STATEN ISLAND D.O.T.: GET OUT OF YOUR CARS AND TAKE A WALK.

DOT vehicles temporarily separated from their drivers, parked outside Borough Hall on Nick LaPorte Place where it meets Stuyvesant Place.

A BAD CASE OF
WINDSHIELD BLINDNESS

I know that D.O.T. staffers walk. Not that I've actually seen them do it, mind you. But I have seen their cars parked all around the perimeter of Borough Hall (see photo above), and they're empty. However . . .

People who walk only in situations where it's not practical to drive--inside Borough Hall, for example--are not really walkers, and they're not pedestrians either. They're Drivers Temporarily Separated From Their Cars. They see the world mostly through a windshield.

That's their choice. Until their choice becomes our problem. I use 'our' here to refer to the sizable minority of people on the north shore who, like me, don't own cars and depend on public transportation and their own two feet to get around.

We vote. We pay taxes. And the transportation subsidy dollars we consume are tiny compared to the bureaucratic and infrastructure maintenance costs of our antediluvian one-person/one-car transportation system. Not to mention congestion, loss of productivity, and the impact on public health.

One of the very few crosswalks near Borough Hall guides pedestrians across Central Avenue and up Hyatt Street toward St. Marks Place.

CROSSWALKS CALM TRAFFIC,
GUIDE PEDESTRIANS
AND PROMOTE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Crosswalks give pedestrians the guidance they need to cross streets safely. They alert drivers to the need to slow down to accommodate those who need to cross. Yet our attempts to make local streets safer for pedestrians are blocked by D.O.T.'s windshield blindness.

DOT policymakers are drivers who make policy for drivers, not pedestrians. And they discount pedestrians' experience as "merely" anecdotal, when compared to their studies and statistics. This is science in the service of the status quo and nothing more.

STATISTICS VERSUS REALITY

When you think of what it costs to keep drivers driving on our roadways, the cost of making roadways safe for pedestrians to cross is, once again, tiny. So it's not a matter of money. It's a matter of intentional blindness to the realities Staten Island pedestrians face every day.

DOT typically relies on studies and statistics to determine the reality that pedestrians confront. They have no experience actually walking the streets whose safety they're supposed to regulate for everyone, not just drivers. So they hide behind the dubious authority of statistics.

Here's a taste of the real world that pedestrians confront around Borough Hall, particularly on weekdays:

NO MAINTENANCE

NO MAINTENANCE at St. Marks Place at Hyatt Street. If they can't see this crosswalk, drivers won't slow down as they approach it and pedestrians won't risk using it.

NO ACCESS

NO ACCESS at the southwest corner of Central Avenue and St. Marks Place. To cross Hyatt Street safely, you have to go either to the top or the bottom of the hill. At the top, there's a deteriorating crosswalk. Near the bottom, you can dart across Hyatt Street as it turns, and then into the Baker Square island, from which you can cross to the north side of Hyatt. Most people, including me, won't bother and, without crosswalks, put themselves at risk, crossing a wide and busy street.

NO CROSSWALK

NO CROSSWALK to get you safely to the north side of Hyatt Street from the Baker Square traffic island.

NO SAFE WAY ACROSS ON THE OTHER SIDE, EITHER

NO SAFE WAY to the south side of Hyatt Street from the Baker Square traffic island, either. And because it's downhill on this side, cars tend to go faster here.  If you can't step lively--as many seniors can't--it may be better not to step at all. That's not fair and it's not good public health policy, either. Seniors, like everybody else, need opportunities to walk more, not less.

TOO RISKY TO CROSS

SURE, YOU CAN SEE THE WHITE CAR ROLLING DOWN THE HILL, top right, but what about the one behind that--the one you can't see until you've already made the decision to cross? Is there time to make it to the other side safely?  Without a crosswalk to guide you across and slow traffic down, you hesitate to risk crossing. Another impediment to mobility.

YET ANOTHER RISKY CORNER (SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!)

TRYING TO CROSS TO THE BUS SHELTER from the north side of Borough Hall, you'd better watch out for the cars that swing up and around from Bay Street. There's nothing between you and them but your legs.

COMING COURTHOUSE CONSTRUCTION IS NO REASON D.O.T.
CAN'T IMPROVE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY AROUND BOROUGH HALL

We're about to see a temporary but significant increase in the amount of construction and heavy vehicle activity in the area around the new county courthouse--in a lot bounded by Central Avenue, Hyatt Street and St. Marks Place.

We mustn't permit DOT to cite the temporary nature of this increase as a reason to delay the installation of the many new crosswalks we need now. We'll need these crossswalks even more with substantial new construction activity that's coming to Staten Island's most walkable neighborhood.

It's more than time to demand that DOT protect the rights to safety of pedestrians, its most neglected constituency.

#         #         #

CAN A VISION FOR STATEN ISLAND INCLUDE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY? MAYBE NOT.

In this March 29 photo, a decorative terra cotta panel can still be seen through the branches of a budding swamp maple on the grounds of the Schmidt house (1885) at the corner of Daniel Low Terrace at Fort Place, St. George.

WHERE PEOPLE DON'T WALK,
PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
ISN'T AN ISSUE

Attending a recent workshop at P.S. 77 in New Springville--generally considered the island's 'middle'--I was made aware of the differences between north and south shore realities in a new way.

Here's the background:

Last winter, I was one of many Staten Islanders who participated in a series of idea-gathering sessions conducted by Vision for Staten Island (VSI), an organization whose website offers this description of its structure and purpose:

Vision for Staten Island is a community initiative to bring together citizens and public and private leaders from throughout the borough to create an inclusive and comprehensive vision for the future. The vision will identify shared goals for all aspects of the Island's life, and specific steps to implement each goal.

More recently, VSI conducted a series of what it called Reality Check Workshops to "integrate the public's intuitive input [from those sessions held last winter--ed.] with more specific information from topical experts." Held during the weeks of April 27 and May 4, these workshops focused on issues such as health, housing, economic development, and education. I showed up for the workshop on walking and biking held May 7.

Section, garden gate,
Brooklyn Botanic Garden,
September, 2007

CHANGING BIKE LANE SITING vs.
CHANGING TRANSPORTATION CULTURE

Most of those who attended the walking/biking session, fewer than a dozen including me, appeared to be bicyclists, mostly from the south shore. Some may also have been the 'topical experts' these Reality Check sessions were supposed to include. If so, they were not identified and did not identify themselves as such.

Most of the discussions centered on improving Staten Island's accommodations for cyclists; lobbying for more rational siting of bike paths; and seeking greater community input concerning the development of recreational facilities.

Every individual present was smart, articulate and realistic about what could be achieved. Every one, that is, except me. While most attendees were talking about the difficulties of introducing bike paths on Staten Island, particularly on the south shore, I kept bringing up the need to change transportation culture on Staten Island.

I might as well have been speaking Serbo-Croat.

Yes, I was referring to the dangers that residents of the island's older, more walkable neighborhoods --mostly on the north shore--are exposed to each day, just trying to cross the street. But more broadly, I was referring to the need to develop a transportation culture in which streets are seen as public environments rather than roadways with narrow pedestrian walkways attached on each side. This is happening in the other boroughs, but as usual, not here.

Section, east wall facing Tysen Street near Fillmore Street, Snug Harbor Cultural Center,
New Brighton

BEYOND THE SCOPE

OF THIS PROJECT?

I left the workshop wondering whether north and south would ever reconcile our very different experiences as Staten Islanders.
Maybe, I thought, VSI is the wrong forum in which to do the reconciling; too big-picture to devote the focus required.

As the island's population continues to expand--with increased demands on local roads and other infrastructure and heightened driver frustration--pedestrian safety is becoming more and more of a problem on the north shore. But except for a few hot spots--such as Hylan Boulevard in New Dorp--it's not much of a problem on the south, where fewer people walk.

Maybe this is an issue best addressed within a community board or city councilmanic framework in consultation with DOT, on Staten Island and/or in Manhattan.

I would welcome your thoughts on this issue.

RANT-O-RAMA 1

DON'T GET ME STARTED . . .

 

TWO CATCH-BASINS-IN-NAME-ONLY:

Above, left, at the southwest corner of Jersey Street and Richmond Terrace, New Brighton; below, right, at the southwest corner of St. Marks Place and Hamilton Avenue, St. George.

How long do you suppose it's been?

 

JUST FOR THE THRILL OF IT.

If you're a pedestrian who's into risky behavior, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) has the perfect challenge in store for you at the intersection of Castleton Avenue, Glen Avenue, Duer Lane and Woodstock Avenue, Brighton Heights.

Just look: Not a single cross-walk to protect you, not even a little, from the cars, buses and trucks that can come out of nowhere, unannounced, from four different directions and maim or even kill you.

Want your life-threatening danger straight and unmediated? This intersection's for you!

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PARCHED DRAGON AND THIRSTY VILLAGERS
LEARN TO SHARE

On St. George Day, April 25, Tompkinsville Park was filled with musicians and artists and artisans and belly dancers and neighbors and friends sitting on benches, snapping pictures, listening to the music, viewing the art displayed on racks, and checking out the offerings of food and other vendors.

I arrived in time to catch the enactment of a play co-written by event organizers and Every Thing Goes Book Café proprietors Katie McCarthy and Steve Jones Daughs. Their version of the legend replaces the old, violent story line with another in which George and the Dragon reconcile and by sharing resources are able to live in peace. The exciting and versatile !VIVAMARIA! supplied the accompanying narration and music.

The play featured a large papier maché dragon with a fluttery fabric wingspan, held aloft and made ambulatory by--from the look of these photos--about a dozen people. These photos follow the dragon as it circles the fountain. After reaching agreement with George and the people of the local village, the dragon is able to take a drink of the cool, clear water of the Tompkinsville Park fountain. Everyone rejoices. The villagers dance. Exuent all.

[CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.]