Restaurants, Cars, Bikes, And Now A Blizzard: How 2020 Has Changed NYC's Streets

Brian: Hi, it's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again everyone. As David first just told you in the newscast, in just over 24 hours, the first major snowstorm of the season is expected to begin. Starting late tomorrow, New York City could see 8 to 12 inches, they're saying up to 14 in that latest report that David just brought. They're saying up to 2 feet in parts of New Jersey. Just like in any year, the prospect of a real blizzard brings with it also some excitement but also real challenges about street safety and getting around. In order to speed up the plowing process, the city is asking restaurants with outdoor dining setups to dismantle some of their dining structures so the guidance is still hazy on what exactly is required.

It's a headache, obviously, for restaurant owners who may have just gotten their setups together but also emblematic of the competition for space we've seen on the streets all year. From outdoor dining, to new bicyclists, to speeding drivers, we've all heard people gunning their engines more than in the past, to street maintenance and pedestrians. Remember pedestrians? Sometimes they now weave into the street to avoid other people's airspace on the sidewalk. Have you seen that? It seems like everyone wants a piece of the road in 2020 which can lead to conflict and, sometimes, traffic fatalities.

In fact, there are now more traffic deaths this year than compared to this time last year which is weird when so many fewer cars are on the road. With me now for a state of the street segment are two of our inhouse reporters, Ben Yakas, arts and culture editor for Gothamist, he's been following outdoor dining rules for the approaching weather, and WNYC transporter reporter, Stephen Nessen, he's been doing some year-end reporting on the state of Vision Zero and how the city has failed and succeeded in addressing street safety in 2020. Hi, Ben and Stephen. Good morning.

Ben: Good morning.

Stephen: Good morning.

Brian: Stephen, I'll start with you. I think people might be surprised to hear the traffic fatalities since even if they haven't been out themselves, they've seen the photos of city streets almost free of cars, at least in midtown. Why is this the case?

Stephen: Well, it certainly appears, just looking at the numbers and speaking with the Department of Transportation that the type of deaths are a little bit different this year. Motorcyclists were really the biggest jump. I think last year there were about 25 motorcyclists killed on the road. This year, we're already up to 48 so that number has nearly doubled. Also, motor vehicle drivers. Last year, 43 people died this year, we're at 66. That is an increase.

The DOT, like you mentioned, you've heard people gunning their engines. You can just look at the number of speeding tickets issued this year and it's quite unbelievable. Last year, two million speeding tickets were issued so far up to November, I believe, it was four million in New York City. Four million speeding tickets, those are the tickets near schools. It's quite incredible.

I should add, not across the board, deaths are up. Pedestrian deaths are actually the lowest. Folks getting hit in the crosswalk is down to 96 this year and that is the lowest since De Blasio launched the Vision Zero program. Cyclists' deaths are about the same as last year. To date, we're about at 24. Last year, it was 27. I suppose that is somewhat interesting because there's been a real boom in cycling.

We've seen the lines out the door of people buying bikes. Bike shops can't keep up with the demand. There are a lot more cyclists on the road this year and it's not accompanied by a similar rise in cyclist deaths. I suppose that's a spot of good news.

Brian: It's hard to judge in 2020 because it doesn't compare to any other year but it's part of the theory that bicycling advocates have always put out there which is that the more bicyclists there are, the lower the rate of bicycle fatalities and injuries is going to be because it will normalize bicycles as far as the drivers are concerned. That critical mass will mean it's safer for all the cyclists out there at the same time. This little piece of evidence seems to bear that out a little bit. If there are many more cyclists but the same number of people as last year got killed on their bikes then the rate is down and it adds a little bit of evidence for that argument, you think?

Stephen: Absolutely. That's what the advocate say, that's what the DOT says. However, let's not forget the city has a lot of tools at its disposal to make it safer. It's not just that they have to rely on more people biking for the roads to get safer. They could add more bike lanes. In fact, you may have seen other cities around the world. Paris added 400 miles of temporary bike lanes during the pandemic. London added over 50. I think our city is on track to add 19 miles of protected bike lanes this year. That's short of their goal of 30 miles. The DOT says well, they couldn't do it because of COVID and so on and so forth. They didn't have workers. The pandemic. We understand that but they haven't reacted necessarily to this boom in biking.

They told me, actually, they put out some spray paint and some temporary barrels on busy intersections like on 2nd Avenue and downtown Brooklyn. The Advocates say that's just not going to cut it going forward. We need to really meet the demand and make the street safer through redesign and stuff like that.

Brian: Have you gotten to ask anybody from the mayor's office or the Department of Transportation if Paris could ramp up bicycle lanes to the degree that they have precisely because of the pandemic, you're saying, why New York's response at 19 new miles of bike lanes is so pathetic?

Stephen: They say they do what they can. They blame COVID for reduction in workforce. I'm not going to make excuses for them. We should also add, the mayor convened this giant task force during the pandemic of the city's greatest transportation minds including everyone represented. AAA was there, Transportation Alternatives, and they put together a plan to make the streets safer, to slow down the cars and the mayor didn't even look at the plan. Advocates are scratching their head.

It seems like a real missed opportunity this year to jumpstart some changes and the DOT says, "Yes, we're going to definitely continue this next year. We're going to add more bike lanes next year and add more bus lanes," but the demand is happening right this very second. I think a lot of advocates are disappointed with the city's response.

Brian: Let's turn to Ben Yakas from Gothamist and talk about the other player on the road this year, outdoor dining. Ben, what are the rules for restaurants because from what I'm hearing, a lot of restaurant owners are still confused even with the snow just 24 hours away. Restaurants with outdoor dining structures ahead of this possible blizzard because the guidance has been a little confusing, how much can you clarify about what they're supposed to do?

Ben: Last week, the city announced that they would be issuing two kinds of alerts this winter, a winter operation advisory which is just when there is some winter weather, some ice and snow but generally no accumulation of snow. Then a snow alert, which is when there's an inch or more of snow. In this announcement, they said, "If there's over 12 inches of snow, there are going to be even more regulations." I think the confusion is happening because when they announced this, I don't think anyone necessarily expected we would be getting over a foot within a week of this.

Historically speaking, New York City has only gotten over a foot of snow five times in the last 60 years in December, so it's very rare. Obviously, last winter, we had no snow. All which is to say the city has been scrambling a bit to try to put together the guidance and it's already changed twice in the last week for what restaurants do or don't have to do. This morning, Mayor De Blasio was actually talking about this. What he essentially said is a snow alert has been issued. Restaurants have to stop serving customers as of 2:00 PM Wednesday. The city will let restaurants know when they can start to do outdoor dining again. Probably Thursday night or more likely Friday depending on how cleanup goes.

They're expected to secure everything that could be secured so tables, chairs, things like that. If you can bring it inside, bring it inside but they are actually not asking restaurants to remove any barriers or structures for roadway dining. They understand that this is going to be really difficult for a lot of places that have created these structures. It's not a simple thing to turn around in 24 hours to completely dismantle them. They say that they're going to try to work around with the plowing, work around these structures whenever possible.

Brian: What's the point of telling the restaurants what they can and can't serve? Not that a lot of people are going to want to sit outside and eat in a blizzard but there's the Polar Bear's Club, they go swimming on the ocean on New Year's Day. If they don't have to remove the structures from the street, then what's the point of any of the other restrictions?

Ben: They are not supposed to serve anybody outside and in particular in roadways. The question is then, in theory, you have a backyard or something, you could still be serving food back there, but anything that's obstructing a roadway or a sidewalk, you can't be serving customers there. Then they're worried about gusts of wind going through anything that isn't nailed down and they're asking that people regularly remove snow from overhead coverings in case one of these structures doesn't have a very secure roof, what if it falls through?

Brian: Yes, a new challenge for the restaurant owners who I know you've been talking to tons of these restaurant workers and owners at this point, what's morale like? We should ask the callers, but I'll ask you as a reporter, what's the morale like this week with the shutdown of indoor dining again and the approaching weather, it's such a morass?

Ben: To quote Pete Campbell from Mad Men, it's not great [inaudible 00:10:59]. Places have invested money in upgraded air filtration, in UV lights, in plexi dividers. They spent a lot of money in getting their indoor areas to be areas where people will want to go and sit and dine, and they feel it is beyond frustrating that they now have to shut down again and lay off their staff. Some people told me that they feel like they're playing a game where they're endlessly pivoting and repivoting and trying to redesign their businesses hoping that something will stick and something will last.

Obviously, this is happening now at a time when there's no stimulus, there's no extended benefits, no $600 checks to soften the blow of closing, there's no Restaurants Act, no Heroes Act, and they have unpaid or partially paid rent that is building up with debts nine months now, so they are scared, they're scared how long is this going to last? Nobody knows if this is going to be a month, two months.

Brian: Listeners, we can take some phone calls with Ben Yakas and Steven Nissen from Gothamist and WNYC 646-435-7280. Are you one of the many new Yorkers competing for space on the city sidewalks and streets? Are you a cyclist, a walker or a driver? Do you have an outdoor dining setup? How have you used the streets this year differently than in past years? Do you think the city's done a good job creating space for everyone and keeping the streets as safe as they can? 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. I don't even have to give out the phone number because Steven as you know, coming on this show regularly as our transportation reporter, as soon as you say streets in New York city, everybody calls in. 646-435-7280, beginning with Patricia in Flushing. Patricia, you're on WNYC, hi there.

Patricia: Good morning. I live in the Queensborough with Hill section of Flushing. We have relatively recently new non-protected bike lanes but when the streets were done, the word stop and the stop line does not extend across the bike lane and it's just giving cyclists an invitation to blow through the corners of which they do regularly. I did a major ducking job this morning to avoid being hit. I don't understand why these stop lines do not extend-- The word stop isn't across the bike lanes.

Brian: Steven, that one's for you.

Steven: I don't speak for the Department of Transportation or their redesigns, but I know that a network system is the goal. Certainly, there's a lot of drivers that complain about cyclists, that is a perennial, but the flip side of course, is that 10,000 pound vehicles far more deadly than a 40 pound bicycle.

Brian: If bike lanes don't have stop signs, I don't really know the answer to this, but I presume just from my experience as a cyclist, that if you're in a bike lane that's on a city street, you're seeing all the traffic signs that exist and the traffic lights, and you're supposed to obey those.

Steven: Sure, that's absolutely correct. There is a push or quiet push anyways to allow cyclists to do a rolling stop so they can check and then roll through a red light if they need to, if there's no traffic, but it's a perennial issue. One of the things the DOT did tell me though is that with the Biden administration, they're actually hoping to lobby for a smaller SUV size, and you say why do I mention that? Because when an SUV parks at an intersection, it's very hard to see the traffic coming, because they're so tall. There's a push to get smaller vehicles out on the streets so vision is easier for everyone, for the cyclists and for drivers alike.

Brian: I guess people have their families and have their reasons, but I'm always shocked when I see a Dodge caravan parked on the streets of Manhattan and things like that, it's like, why do you need that here? Derek in Brooklyn, cyclist. You're on WNYC. Hi Derek.

Derek: Hey Brian, good morning. I think you just touched on a little bit of something I wanted to mention. They put new bike lanes on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, where there are parked cars between you and the traffic, and so half the time cars are making turns into you and you're going out into the intersection, it's completely blind. If they're going to build a bike infrastructure, which they really, really, really need to, they need to build it separate from automobiles, just fundamentally, it doesn't work otherwise.

Brian: You wanted to push back, I think, on the relatively positive spin that I was putting on the number of cyclists deaths, staying quest, one death is too many, but the number of cyclists deaths not going up with the large number of additional cyclists this year. You wanted to say why that is not actually a sign of progress, right?

Derek: Yes. The streets were basically frozen for almost four months when COVID started. I was riding my bike in relatively empty streets and really enjoying it, especially in April and May and June. Now there's more cars than there really ever have been because everyone's buying them and everyone's coming back to the city with them. I don't think having the same number of deaths over a period of time where there was so much free space to ride, I think it's still seriously problematic. I personally lost a friend in an accident this year and it doesn't seem like it's safer out there. People are cutting us off constantly.

Brian: Derek, thank you very much. Obviously, if there's more speeding, which we know that there is, that's going to be dangerous for anybody but it's certainly going to be dangerous for people who aren't in vehicles the same size and weight as yours. Ben Yakas, I think there's also still some confusion for the outdoor dining restaurants on the proper way to winterize the structures, blizzard or not. For example, I think places have to have at least 50% open sides to operate during an indoor dining shutdown so that the air is really circulating and they're not just replicating indoors outdoors, is that right?

Ben: That is right. We have seen a lot of confusion around this issue and if you go on Twitter or something, you'll see a lot of people taking photos of these structures and being like, "How is this outdoor dining?" Well, in a lot of cases, it's not outdoor dining. If you've created a structure that is enclosed over 50% then it is indoor dining, and it was under those capacity rules. Because indoor dining has now been suspended in the city for the foreseeable future, if a restaurant wants to keep one of those structures, they need to then dismantle it so that it is, as you said, at least 50% open. City inspectors are going to start going out this week, but the blizzard probably will stop them at the end of the week, but the beginning of this week and all next week, they're going to be checking these structures out to make sure that they have circulation happening.

Brian: Here's Trenton in Athens, Georgia, following up on the caller from before about stop signs for bike lanes. Trenton you're on WNYC, and am I saying your name right?

Trenton: That is correct. Thank you very much, Brian, for having me on, I'm a fan of the show. I just wanted to add to the conversation. I know that the stop signs isn't the only problem, but it is a problem. I used to live in NYC. I used to bike from Queens. I lived in Woodside, I would bike to Friends seminary in Union Square area, most mornings and evenings. When you're the only cyclist that obeys the stop sign, you get clipped. I was clipped several times by cyclists who just kept blowing through a stop sign. You either get clipped or you have to move into the street into oncoming traffic. I know we compare ourselves in New York City to European countries, and I've cycled in Japan, I've cycled in Denmark and the thing is that people actually follow the stop signs or the traffic signs for cycling. I just feel like NYC could also borrow that to help to encourage cyclists to play safe, but also protect them from oncoming traffic as well.

Brian: Trenton, thank you very much. Before you each go, Steven, for you, the Regional Plan Association, which some people know is a not-for-profit. pillar of the planning establishment, submitted a long list of ideas to the mayor about addressing traffic safety, specifically in a pandemic, and among the suggestions was aggressively expand street space for pedestrians, they did some of that. Ramp up bike lane installation, we've been talking about how they've done pathetically little of that. Come up with a plan for restricting vehicular traffic in Manhattan like the city did after 911, and come up with a robust communication plan, as they call it, to help New Yorkers get out of their cars and find other ways to get around, but that's really hard when the impulse even for a lot of people I know who live in the city and say, "I don't want to ever own a car again." They don't feel safe taking the subway, and they're tempted to buy cars, and many of them are buying cars. It's hard to have the public-minded impulse and what seems right for you as an individual at the same time.

Stephen: You laid it out absolutely, Brian. Adding to that, there's also been a renewed push from folks to bring back the idea of permitted street parking because like you said, there are so many people buying cars, and it's such a valuable space, restaurants are now using the parking spaces. I do think there's an awakening and awareness of how valuable this public street space is, and there's a lot of competing interests now. It'll be interesting to see going forward how the city responds and how flexible they can be and how willing they are to take chances. We have a new Mayor coming, a new City Council coming, so I expect to see a lot of changes in the coming years even next year.

Brian: Ben, for you as Gothamist Arts and Culture Editor, I wonder what kind of creativity we might see over the coming days if we really do get a big blizzard because last year I was seeing this stat. I knew I didn't wear my boots at all last winter, but I saw the stat that it was only 5 inches of total snow in New York City all of last winter. We're probably going to get more than that by midnight tomorrow night.

Ben: Yes. I think this will be the biggest snowstorm we've had maybe since 2010, which was that really huge blizzard in December.

Brian: We will see how people react, we will see how people cope, just what we need with everything else going on. With Ben Yakus, Arts and Culture Editor for Gothamist and WNYC Transportation reporter, Steven Nelson, thank you both so much.

Stephen: Thank you, Brian.

Ben: Thank you.

 

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