New York DOT Releases First Street Design Manual for NYC

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Editor, Stephen Kelly

 

This is 9th Avenue in Manhattan after street improvements. Engineering, planning and urban design best practices over the last 10 years have emphasized a more balanced idea of street design, giving equal weight to transportation, community and environmental goals. The cars have their street; the bicyclists have their mostly segregated lane and the pedestrians have their sidewalks.
Photos: NYC DOT.

New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced May 20, 2009 the release of the Street Design Manual for New York City 2009, a landmark document of 232 pages, two years in the making, that establishes policies and guidelines and details a broad array of design options available to create world-class streets in New York City.

Over time, horse–drawn carriages, people on foot or horseback, bicycles and streetcars have shared NYC streets with pushcart vendors, outdoor markets, children playing, and neighbors socializing. In recent decades, street design has focused primarily on moving motor vehicles along, resulting in unsustainable land development, fewer transportation choices, increased noise, pollution, and greenhouse gases, as well as a decline in social, civic, physical, and economic activity on the streets. Diners and pedestrians on historic Stone Street in Manhattan, however, rule the road (granite cobblestones). Cobblestones have one advantage—they’re relatively easy to remove and reset for utility access.

The manual’s purpose is to assist city agencies, design professionals and private developers, among others, in designing and maintaining streets, to improve safety and quality of life in the city’s diverse neighborhoods and stimulate economic investment.

According to the 2008 PlaNYC Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan, New York City streets make up 26.6 percent of the city’s land area. NYC streets, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg notes, are “dynamic, and their character and uses can change as the city continually evolves and reinvents itself.”

The granite bouldered strip that separates the sidewalk from the bike lane would make bikers safer if it were the buffer to the street. At any rate, the city’s efforts to enhance street safety through engineering, education and enforcement have helped contribute to the lowest number of pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries since the city began keeping such statistics in 1910.
Photos: NYC DOT.

The city has various designs for its streets, depending on the usage. There are bus-priority corridors, truck routes, commercial main streets and residential neighborhood blocks.

“We have been working especially hard to tailor the streets to best fit the needs of individual neighborhoods and communities,” explains the mayor.

The manual offers detailed guidance on geometric, material, lighting and street furniture treatments, providing descriptions, benefits and constraints of particular applications, ranging from more varied uses for concrete and asphalt to the layout of bus lanes, raised speed reducers, greening, medians and sidewalks. These treatments, most of which can be found in the city today, support the vision for the city’s growth outlined by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative.

The standard street luminaire for NYC streets is the ‘Cobra Head,’ a medium semi-cutoff with 100W or 150W high pressure sodium lamps. The luminaire was introduced by Westinghouse and G.E. in 1957 to mate with an aluminum post designed in 1958 and first installed in 1963. Additional poles have been added with octagonal, round or davit bases. Pole heights for street lighting are 25 or 30 ft. tall. Cobra Head pedestrian lighting is at 70W and 100W. The luminaries and poles are provided and maintained by NYC DOT. Optional luminaries/poles require additional funding. Beginning in 2009, greater wattages than the standard specs require additional funding.

The Helm luminaire in semi–cutoff or cutoff, was piloted by NYC DOT on Queens Boulevard in 2008. The luminaire is a more contemporary option to the standard Cobra Head, but at an additional cost. Lamp wattage for NYC streets is either 100W and 150W.

This LED type E luminaire with a rectangular design housing is a full cutoff with modular light bars that NYC DOT plans to pilot the in select locations.

The Triboro Bridge Tunnel Authority (TBTA) pole was originally introduced in the 1950s and ’60s. The TBTA replaced wooden lamp posts that lit parkways during the 1920s and ’30s. The poles and shielded teardrop luminaries were recently installed as pedestrian lighting along the Hudson River Park Greenway.

The Flushing Meadows pole and cutoff luminaire was first installed in 2004 by the NYC Parks and Rec in Canarsie Park in Brooklyn. The pole is now installed in many city parks, plazas, and along walkways and bikeways. The high-pressure sodium lamping for pedestrian use is 70 or 100W, or as much as 150W for street applications.

NYC DOT plans to pilot the type L rectangular cutoff lighting by 2010 as a contemporary alternative for parks, plaza, esplanades, pedestrian bridges, walkways and bikeways.

The Playbook

Commissioner Sadik-Khan called the manual “a playbook for creating durable, safe and attractive streetscapes that can be tailored to meet the needs of individual neighborhoods and communities.”

From 2000 to 2006, the NYC DOT recorded a 75 percent increase of bicyclists in the Central Business District. The department held an international CityRacks Design competition. There were over 200 entrants. The design of Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve (Bettlelab) of Copenhagen won first-place in the outdoor bike rack category. The cast-metal bike rack of Mahaffy and De Greeve design is now the NYC standard. All bike racks must be a minimum of 18 inches from the curb and “allow a minimum clear path of 8 feet in width.” They also must be at least 15 feet from fire hydrants, bus stops, taxi stands and subway entrances, and 10 feet from driveways and building entrances.
Photo: NYC DOT.

The manual was necessary because NYC has, to put it mildly, a complex array of regulations and multiple agencies that affect how the streets turn out. The manual is touted as the first comprehensive resource on the city’s street design. It consolidates the standards and specifications for street materials, lighting and furniture across agencies. The manual’s goals are to create safer and lasting streets; streets that work for a variety of activities, needs and communities; streets whose design and appearance work for the city and are better for the environment.

The pedestrian plaza hardscape in the roadway at 185th Street at Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan is imprinted asphalt, a cost–effective alternative to unit pavers. This machine–heated asphalt, imprinted with a pattern template and colored with a protective coating can be installed on existing asphalt in good condition. It is most appropriate for pedestrian streets, plazas or roadways with no regular vehicular traffic, such as restricted–use streets. The pattern and colored coating may deteriorate if exposed to regular vehicle traffic.
Photo: NYC DOT.

The Street Design Manual presents an extraordinary opportunity to improve the city’s street environment. Using the manual, agencies will be able to collaborate in testing new, environmentally-sound materials and designs. Working with partners to integrate sustainable materials into the city’s toolbox and to maintain them going forward will be a critical part of this effort. For example, proper street design can reduce water pollution caused by storm water runoff by using more permeable surfaces, trees and vegetation. In this way, designs can meet these needs while also improving the visual quality and coherence of streets by using consistent, durable materials and with consideration for the city’s future needs.

New York City streets make up over a quarter of the city’s land area.
Source: PlaNYC Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan, 2008 - Photos: NYC DOT.

The Street Design Manual is the product of an interagency task force headed by the NYC DOT and included the Dept. of Design and Construction (DDC), City Planning (DCP), Environmental Protection (DEP), Parks and Recreation (DPR), Buildings (DOB), Small Business Services (SBS), the Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the Design Commission (DC), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and, finally, the mayor’s office.

A “bus bulb” is a curb extension at a bus stop that avoids the need for buses to pull in and out of the moving lane to stop. This bus bulb “island” is on Broadway in Manhattan provides safety and traffic calming benefits. Bus bulbs designs may include higher curbs, bus stop shelters, seating and preboarding payment equipment.

London pavers, 18” x 36”, lead pedestrians along the access ramp to the Brooklyn Bridge. This is an optional sidewalk treatment for the city. It is usually for sidewalks fronting civic structures. London pavers are less expensive than stone pavers, but can become loose over time and require regular maintenance.

Task Force

A task force initially convened in fall 2007 to make a practical assessment of problems, needs and opportunities in a broad range of street conditions. Over the course of a year, agency representatives visited sites throughout the city, reviewed conditions and the performance of street materials, as well as lighting geometric treatments. The group considered potential new materials and treatments requiring further study, sustainability issues and storm water impacts. This effort led to a decision to expand the responsibilities of the task force to create a manual that would provide design direction for streets.

Decorative thermpolastic imprinting can be used on any crosswalk on an asphalt roadbed. It is applied into grooves created by heating asphalt. Abrasion from vehicle tires may need to be touched–up or reapplied within 5 to 10 years.
Credit: Integrated Paving Concepts.

The Street Design Manual is available at www.nyc.gov/streetdesignmanual for free viewing or downloading!

Cobblestones make for an attractive furnishing zone in Battery Park City, Manhattan. These are sand–set for easier installation and greater permeability. Furnishing zones are meant as narrow strips parallel to the sidewalk, appropriate for trees, light poles and benches.
Photos: NYC DOT.

See related story: “NYC Greenstreets” https://landscapearchitect.com/research/article/12266