The Public Workshop on Thursday was AH-MAAAAAA-ZING, with 200 people packing Tarrytown's Senior Center. Even better, everyone was told the State DOT the same thing: make Route 9 safe by changing it to one, narrower travel lane per direction, more/better sidewalks, protected bike lanes, etc. The consultants and the DOT both noted how impressed they were.
(This result is, in part, due to the educational/inspirational materials Bike Tarrytown composed, printed, distributed, lobbied with, met about, etc. Your generous financial investment is crucial to keeping this work going. https://biketarrytown.org/donate.php)
Wednesday went well too, when attendees at Sleepy Hollow's Climate Action Plan meeting expressed that traffic calming, an e-bike share system, and a protected bike lane on Route 9 are the most desirable ways to reduce the Village's transportation emissions.
A collaboration between Livable Tarrytowns, Bike Tarrytown and The Analysis and Solutions Company produced a set of proposals for making the intersection of Broadway and McKeel Ave as safe as possible:
While we are heartened to hear the State DOT has put this intersection on their emergency projects list; responding to pressure from Tarrytown's officials. Problematically, the DOT is only looking at curb extensions. That configuration does not make people to drive at safe speeds or prevent vehicles passing on the left. More importantly, it makes people walking have to manage cars from all directions instead of just one, which welcomes dangerous mistakes by everyone involved.
Tarrytown's Board of Trustees needs to quickly pass a resolution requesting two things from the DOT:
1) Rapidly implement a median refuge pilot program at this intersection.
2) The long term solution needs to use international best practices, which include the use of median refuges.
(Configuration details on both of those points are in the article.)
Please email Tarrytown's officials right now:
Karen Brown <kbrown@tarrytowngov.com>, David Kim <dkim@tarrytowngov.com>, Effie Phillips-Staley <epstaley@tarrytownny.gov>, Paul Rinaldi <prinaldi@tarrytowngov.com>, Rebecca McGovern <bmcgovern@tarrytowngov.com>, Robert Hoyt <rhoyt@tarrytowngov.com>, Thomas Mitchell <tmitchell@tarrytownny.gov>, Richard Slingerland <rslingerland@tarrytowngov.com>
Please Bcc us.
If you want to get involved in more intense lobbying on this, join Livable Tarrytown's Route 9 working group by asking to do so at livabletarrytowns@gmail.com.
On Tuesday, in Los Angeles, 67% of voters said "yes" to forcing the City to implement the safety components in it's Mobility Plan when fixing streets. Here's how they did it:
https://michaelschneider.medium.com/how-to-change-your-city-through-a-ballot-measure-ee2e83413ab4
"The cumulative public health benefit of people being more active was estimated at as much as £4,800 per local adult over a 20-year period, the authors found, as against a cost per person to build LTNs of about £28-£35, or £112, depending on the type of scheme built."
They also "found that the positive impacts, particularly for walking and cycling rates, tended to be more noticeable after schemes had been in place for a year or two, rather than immediately, indicating that councils should not determine an LTN’s success or otherwise too early."
biketarrytown.org | info@biketarrytown.org | B: @biketarrytown.bsky.social | F: @BikeTarrytn