Dangerous Midtown Avenue Getting Wider Sidewalks, Bike Parking

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A crowded stretch of Eighth Avenue where dozens of people have been injured in crashes will be redesigned starting this week to feature wider sidewalks, safer signals and more.

The work will run between West 31st and 38th streets, a section that runs past Moynihan Train Hall, Madison Square Garden and the New Yorker Hotel. It will start this week, four months after the city first revealed the planned changes to a local community board.

Over the past decade, nearly 300 crashes have occurred along those six blocks, injuring 155 pedestrians, 54 cyclists and 120 drivers, according to city data. One woman was killed in 2016 when she was struck by an SUV at 38th Street. (An overlapping stretch of Eighth Avenue was named one of the nation's deadliest streets in a recent study.)

Aiming to prevent future tragedies, the city will be adding painted sidewalk extensions along the western side of those seven blocks, by as much as 11 feet in some areas. Five curb extensions will also be installed on the eastern sidewalk.

Split-phase left-turn signals will also be added at 33rd, 34th and 37th streets, in which pedestrians and cyclists are given the green light before drivers are allowed to turn left.

As part of the project, new bike-parking corrals will be installed across the six blocks, though the city has not said where they will be. For months, advocates have clamored for bike parking at Moynihan Train Hall, which currently lacks any corrals.

In front of the New Yorker Hotel near 35th Street, the existing taxi boarding island will be widened, with new crossing points added to prevent bike-lane collisions.

The city hopes the changes will help make those busy blocks more equitable. Pre-pandemic, pedestrians made up 85 percent of roadway users — numbering more than 8,000 at the daily peak — but were allocated just 30 percent of street space, with the rest devoted to cars, Department of Transportation planner Casey Gorrell told Community Board 4 in May.

After the changes, pedestrians will hold the upper hand, controlling 50 percent of the space on that segment of Eighth Avenue. This may reduce conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians by getting people out of the bike lane, Gorrell said.

Christine Berthet, founder of the neighborhood street-safety group CHEKPEDS, said in an email that the group was "delighted that this project is underway to complete sidewalk widening on the corridor from Port Authority to Penn Station.

"This is so transformative for the pedestrians and cyclists on 8th Avenue," she wrote. "We are anxious to see it expanded all the way to Columbus circle."

The new Eighth Avenue project is an extension of a 2019 effort that widened sidewalks from 38th to 43rd streets.

Previous coverage: Bike Lane, Pedestrian Fixes Coming To 2 Midtown Avenues