A roughly $18 million federal grant will fund lengthy sought-after visitors security enhancements to a dangerous stretch of Delancey Street close to the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge on Manhattan’s Decrease East Facet, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and a cadre of local pols introduced Monday.
The grant pays for the town Division of Transportation’s (DOT) implementation of a so-called “road diet” alongside the dangerous stretch of Delancey, the senator stated throughout a information convention on the nook of Delancey and Norfolk Streets Monday morning. The highway food regimen consists of reducing traffic lanes, constructing protected bike paths and including accessibility enhancements to the busy thoroughfare between Clinton and Bowery Streets.
Gillibrand stated 38 folks had been both killed or severely injured alongside the part of Delancey Street that’s set to be redesigned between 2016 and 2020. And over the previous decade, there have been 200 crashes in the identical space, in accordance to Congress Member Nydia Velázquez (D-Brooklyn, Queens), who was additionally in attendance.
One sufferer of these crashes was 12-year-old Dashane Santana, who was struck and killed by a driver while she was crossing the street in 2012.
“It’s not too long ago when a 12-year-old, Dashane Santana, was killed by a driver right here on Delancey Street,” the senator stated. “She was a sixth grader. The young girl who dreamed of attending Julliard and becoming an actress. She was crossing this very street when she dropped her bookbag. And I can tell you, no sixth grader anywhere would know not to pick up that bookbag and just cross the street. This is a heartbreaking story.”
“It’s our responsibility to ensure that every New Yorker feels safe,” she continued. “Old folks, toddlers, workers and students shouldn’t have to fear for their lives or their children’s lives simply because they’re crossing the street or waiting for a bus or bicycling to work. We need to do much better.”
As well as to Velázquez, Gillibrand was joined by space officers together with Congress Member Dan Goldman (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn), DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Meeting Member Grace Lee (D-Manhattan and Manhattan Metropolis Council Members Christopher Marte (D) and Carlina Rivera (D).
Marte, who grew up on the Decrease East Facet, labeled the unsafe highway circumstances on Delancey a “crisis” and stated the group has been combating to redesign the busy highway for a few years.
“If you look at Delancey Street now, it’s much different than it was 10 years ago,” Marte stated. “We have a senior center, we have the Market Line, we have Essex Street Market, we have new shops popping up every single day. What hasn’t met that moment? Our road. But today, this announcement is to say we’re meeting that moment, we’re putting our money where our mouth is and we’re going to make this a safer street.”
The $18 million going towards the Delancey redesign is a big chunk of the roughly $21 million granted to New York Metropolis by means of the Secure Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program, Gillibrand stated. The fund is a component of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation handed by the final Congress that goals to distribute $5 billion in federal grants over the subsequent 5 years to forestall future visitors deaths throughout the nation.
General, the state obtained $37 million from this system, she added.
Gillibrand stated the opposite $3 million coming to the town will probably be used for creating a “pedestrian and micro-mobility planning toolkit,” which is able to search to develop pedestrian centered road security initiatives and replace insurance policies round micro-mobility automobiles like e-scooters and e-bikes.
Rodriguez stated that they selected to redesign this particular portion of Delancey as a result of it’s a hazardous stretch closely utilized by pedestrians and cyclists. Nonetheless, he added, that the town wants more cash from the federal authorities so it can provide different dangerous roadways across the metropolis the eye they want.
“This is a critical stretch of Delancey for pedestrians, cycling and vehicle traffic; they connect to the bike lane network,” Rodriguez stated. “So, we are focusing on the most dangerous part of this corridor, but this is a citywide commitment that we have to continue improving safety, especially for pedestrians and cyclists across the five boroughs.”