A world class streets program
How can New York’s streets become truly world class? This was the question posed by Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation Janette Sadik Khan. In typical ‘people-first’ fashion, Gehl approached this challenge by going back to basics — gathering hard facts and figures about what people did and how they experienced New York’s streets. Published in the ‘World Class Streets – Remaking New York City’s Public Realm’ report, the Social Spatial Research provided the baseline data to set new public life targets, and create a new conversation about the role of New York’s streets.
The report initiated a series of highly visible quick-to-make and affordable pilot projects. These targeted interventions gave New Yorkers the chance to see and experience iconic locations like Times Square, Broadway, and Herald Square differently. It also helped pave the way for a network of bikes lanes to connect the surrounding boroughs, and provided the city with experience that, for example, a change as simple as moving bike lanes in between the curb and parallel parking makes walking and cycling safer and more pleasurable.
In 2015, Times Square became the first of the key pilot locations to be completely and permanently transformed, putting the creation of people-centered spaces in New York on the city map for good. Since then, 400,000 square meters of space in the heart of Manhattan have been reclaimed from traffic for people. There are more plants, more places to sit, and more people on bicycles.
