Close Fort Tryon Streets To Cars For Social Distancing: Cyclists

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Margaret Corbin Drive in Fort Tryon Park and several other neighborhood streets should be closed to cars so that New Yorkers staying at home during the coronavirus have more room to spread out when they go outside, advocates say.

Advocates with Bike New York and Transportation Alternatives have come up with a list of dozens of city streets that they say should become pedestrian and cyclist-only open spaces so that New Yorkers can spread out when they get fresh air during a statewide stay-at-home order.

The list of suggestions, which the groups sent to the city's Department of Transportation, comes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked city officials to send him a plan to combat the "wholly inappropriate" density he said was rampant this weekend in New York City.

Cuomo suggested closing city streets to traffic to give New Yorkers more space to spread out, but he said he would leave that decision up to local officials.

“As we heard Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio say this weekend, New York City’s parks and sidewalks are filled with people trying to get some exercise and fresh air -- so full that it is proving difficult to adhere to social distancing guidelines in some places," the groups' representatives said Monday.

"In support of efforts to open some streets exclusively to pedestrians, cyclists, and emergency and essential vehicles, Transportation Alternatives and Bike New York have shared these suggestions, archetypes of streets which we believe could provide value to the city at this critical time, with the DOT."

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The groups specifically suggested zones around hospitals and those that are closed to cars at other points in the year, such as the New York City Marathon route, NYC Street Fair routes and roads that are part of the Summer Streets or annual Car-Free Day, like St. Nicholas Avenue from West 181st to 190th streets.

The advocates also suggested 12 areas that "lack directly adjacent commercial or residential land uses" — including Margaret Corbin Drive, which snakes through Fort Tryon Park — and streets within neighborhoods that aren't walking distance to parks.

The streets could be closed to all cars except emergency vehicles, the organizations said. They offered to mobilize their "corps of volunteers" to help keep the streets clear.

Here's a full list of their suggestions:

• Zones around hospitals, with vehicular access only for emergency vehicles and hospital staff
• The New York City Marathon route
• Streets routinely closed for Summer Streets and the annual Car-Free Day
• NYC Street Fair Routes (2020 calendar here)
• Streets with robust block associations and histories of block parties
• Streets typically closed as part of the Play Streets program
• Streets in neighborhoods not within walking distance of a park (map here)

Streets that lack directly adjacent commercial or residential land uses:

• 73rd Avenue and Francis Lewis Boulevard within Cunningham Park
• Forest Park Drive
• 164th Street within Kissena Park
• Shore Boulevard within Astoria Park
• Crotona Avenue and Claremont Avenue within Crotona Park
• Jackie Robinson Parkway
• East Fordham Road between the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo
• Mosholu Parkway in Van Cortlandt Park
• Bay Street in Red Hook
• Lorimer Street within McCarren Park
• Margaret Corbin Drive within Fort Tryon Park
• Roadways within Latourette Park