Steve Vaccaro with Transportation Alternatives embark on a campaign for major safety updates to 5th and 6th Avenues.
Manhattan’s Fifth and Sixth Avenues are two of the busiest bicycle routes in the city, even without protected bike infrastructure to make cycling appealing to a broader range of New Yorkers. They are also major pedestrian thoroughfares in need of safety upgrades. While DOT’s “6½ Avenue” project can help relieve some of the crowding, both avenues devote wide expanses to motor traffic and could use the kind of overhaul that the city has used to improve conditions for walking and biking on other major streets.
Volunteer Steve Vaccaro is helping to coordinate the grassroots organizing working group. “Pedestrians are the key to this campaign,” he said, while also noting the importance of business interests. “There’s a lot of people who will be involved in the long haul. This won’t happen overnight.” Working group meetings and events, which will be hosted over the next several months, are posted on BikeNYC.org. Late this year or in early 2013, the campaign will reconvene and begin its next phase.
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