Another win for New Yorkers who prefer their pair of comfy air-cushioned soles to taking a ride. The City has just added 19 feet of sidewalk stretch of 8th Avenue.
This is a surprising reversal of a hundred years of taking sidewalks and stoops away to make more room for cars. Treehugger reports that before the transformation, there were five lanes of traffic and the bike lane next to the sidewalk.
“The last time I was in New York City, just before the pandemic hit, I was shocked at how crowded the sidewalks were, how everyone was squished under construction scaffolding when there was no construction happening, and how I couldn’t use the bike lane because it was full of people walking.”
Interestingly, now they decided to add a planter and buffer space between the sidewalk and the bike lane.
This is a smart move because, with the explosion of e-bikes and scooters, there have been many complaints about accidents with pedestrians.
The decision to separate these zones should put an end to e-bikelash and worries that the e-bike revolution is in danger.
During the pandemic, many people started walking, preferring sidewalks to high-risk public transport. The good news is that many of them kept walking after realizing the health and social benefits of it.
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