Redesign Projects Will Help Improve Safety Around Schools, With Focus on Under-Resourced Neighborhoods
Partnership With Northern Manhattan High School Students Resulted in Local Student-Led Redesign With Protected Bike Lanes, Other Traffic-Calming Measures
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today announced that the city is on track to complete more than 100 safe street redesigns in 2022, with most projects located in historically underserved communities and many near schools. One of the projects — on Amsterdam and Saint Nicholas Avenues between West 188th Street and Fort George Avenue — was led by Northern Manhattan high school students participating in the ‘I Challenge Myself’ afterschool program, in collaboration with DOT. Once an area of speeding and reckless driving, the students worked with DOT to develop a redesign of the street with traffic-calming measures, including two-way protected bike lanes, pedestrian islands, speed cushions, and curb extensions to reduce speeding and improve pedestrian and cyclist safety.
“We will never compromise the safety of our students and young people, and equity will always be at the core of our work to protect them,” said Mayor Adams. “We are investing over $900 million in street safety and redesigning 1,000 intersections because every New Yorker should be able to travel across this city without fearing for their life. We have focused relentlessly on the most dangerous intersections and historically underserved neighborhoods, and we will continue to move that work forward as quickly as possible.”
“As a former schoolteacher, I know we have much to learn from our students — and so I am grateful for one project that puts many of their brilliant ideas into motion,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “Under the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, we have committed to improving school traffic safety — especially in communities that have been historically forgotten. From speed cameras to street redesigns like the ones we are unveiling today, DOT is using every tool we have to ensure all students are protected from speeding and reckless drivers. We are proud to have worked closely with the ‘I Challenge Myself’ students and staff, as well as the administrations of the nearby schools, to improve traffic safety in their community. The students were instrumental in crafting the street improvement project’s proposal and in securing Community Board 12’s support of the project. We will continue to work with community partners throughout the five boroughs to ensure we’re reducing the number of New Yorkers lost to traffic violence.”
“Our students know their communities best — down to how to stay safe on their way to and from school,” said New York City Department of Education Chancellor David C. Banks. “It’s vital that we invest in projects that equitably address street traffic safety, and student voice is the most powerful and essential tool we have at our disposal in this work. I am so proud to see our students driving positive change in their communities working in partnership with DOT to create a safer future with fewer incidents of traffic violence for us all.”
DOT worked closely with students from the ‘I Challenge Myself’ afterschool program throughout the process, meeting for a series of field and design workshops to study the area, collect data, and develop a traffic safety proposal for the street. Their research found frequent speeding and reckless driving along Amsterdam Avenue, which the redesign aims to address. The students presented to Manhattan Community Board 12, helping win the unanimous support of the board’s transportation committee.
The Amsterdam Avenue project will deliver much-needed traffic safety improvement measures to seven schools located near the corridor: the College Academy, the Equity Project Charter, High School for Health Careers and Sciences, High School for Law and Public Service, High School for Media and Communications, P.S. 138, and P.S. 189.
Along with the improvements on Amsterdam Avenue, the city is slated to complete dozens of other street improvement projects in underserved communities this year. The city is actively working to improve the safety of streets around schools, especially those located in historically under-resourced communities throughout the five boroughs.
Other street safety improvement projects near schools include:
- Bronx: East 165th and 167th Streets between Prospect Avenue and Simpson Street
- Bronx: Boone Avenue between West Farms Road and Freeman Street
- Bronx: East 158th Street and Cauldwell Avenue
- Brooklyn: Chauncey Street and Malcolm X Boulevard
- Brooklyn: Linden Boulevard and Atkins Avenue
- Queens: Rockaway Boulevard between Sutphin Boulevard and Farmers Boulevard
- Queens: 34th Avenue (Open Street) from 69th Street to Junction Boulevard
- Staten Island: Martha Street and Howard Avenue
- Staten Island: Elson Court and Jules Drive
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