New York State passed the Complete Streets Act in 2011. The NYS Department of Transportation defines a Complete Street in this way:
A Complete Street is a roadway planned and designed to consider the safe, convenient access and mobility of all roadway users of all ages and abilities. This includes pedestrians, bicyclists, public transportation riders, and motorists; it includes children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
Complete Street roadway design features include sidewalks, lane striping, bicycle lanes, paved shoulders suitable to use by bicyclists, signage, crosswalks, pedestrian control signals, bus pull-outs, curb cuts, raised crosswalks, ramps and traffic calming measures.The Before and After pictures below were taken from the New York State Complete Streets Report, published in February 2014. They show the transformation of a street in Great Neck, Long Island, from a two-lane one-way road into a two-lane two-way road with Complete Streets enhancements--"a new aesthetic, easier and safer crossing for pedestrians, and a number of traffic calming measures."
The lion's share of Hudson's $10 million in Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) money--a little less than $4 million--will go toward implementing Complete Streets improvements in the area of the city below Second Street, "to provide safe access, aesthetic improvement, and separation of truck traffic from pedestrians and bicyclists."
COPYRIGHT 2019 CAROLE OSTERINK
there is zero space for bicycle lanes on Warren, State or Columbia. Installing any there would be unsafe for cyclists and motorists. It should not happen. Maybe on Front Street, but that's it. Unfortunately, this is not a bicycle-friendly town and unless you remove one side of parking on those streets, it always will be unfriendly. Wear a helmet and pay attention.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the stats on bicycle accidents in Hudson? Worse than for pedestrians? We need to beef up our planning chops, not only to make them better and smarter, but to make them more democratic and inclusive.
ReplyDeleteCarole, thank you for drawing attention to the Complete Streets presentation, and for including a picture. As a concept it can be abstract and hard to understand, so imagery is vital.
ReplyDeleteComplete Streets is not only about bike lanes. It’s about
I FOILd the past ten years of crash report data to try and discover how many accidents in Hudson have involve cyclists and pedestrians, and if there were pattern as to where they occurred.
But, because the police crash reports have only four classifications: Hit and Runs, Personal Injury, Property Damage, and Accidents Involving Police Vehicles, we would have to dig deeper into all the personal injury accident reports.
Roger Hannigan Gilson of The Other Hudson Valley compared the number of Automobile Accidents with Personal Injuries in Hudson to 8 other cities in the Hudson Valley:
https://theotherhudsonvalley.com/
The number of automobile accidents with personal injury.
1. Newburgh (411 injured)
2. Poughkeepsie (350 injured)
3. Middletown (136 injured)
4. Beacon (60 injured)
5. Catskill (44 injured)
6. HUDSON (38 injured)
7. New Paltz (31 injured)
8. Ellenville (19 injured)
9. Saugerties (18 injured)
The rate of automobile accidents with personal injury per 100,000 people.
1. Newburgh (1,068 AAPI per 100,000)
2. Poughkeepsie (875 per)
3. Catskill (686 per)
4. HUDSON (545 per)
5. Ellenville (446 per)
6. Saugerties (440 per)
7. New Paltz (356 per)
8. Middletown (355 per)
9. Beacon (329 per)
We have a thankfully small number of accidents, yet the rate of those accidents is somewhat high. This indicates to me significant opportunity to make streets, crosswalks, intersections safer for all.
Complete Streets is a pathway to guide this kind of decision-making.
Roger compiled all the data from the 2017 Census Population Estimates and the Department of Motor Vehicles.