DOT rolls out new tech to better analyze how people move on city streets – Streetsblog New York City

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The Department of Transport is rolling out new technology to track how people move on roads, whether by car, on foot or on two wheels. Reducing life-saving improvements.

To better analyze street designs and programs, learn where safety projects work best, and better understand how people use public space, DOT has placed sensors in 12 locations across the city in a pilot program with tech company Viva.

“This road motion sensor technology will allow us to make our roads safer faster,” said Mayor Adams in a statement. “This technology has the potential to save time, money and lives. We are closely monitoring its effectiveness and deploying it strategically.”

As early as March, preliminary data gathered from a sensor at 34th Avenue and 77th Street — the heart of the gold standard of open streets, now known as Paseo Park — indicated that people on foot would begin flocking to the area as soon as the shutters were in place. At 7 p.m., the number of pedestrians increases to about 400 by 2 p.m., before 6 p.m., about 300 cyclists use the road all day, and about 200 ride on the blocks by 5 p.m., according to the first published data. Banned.

A picture of who is using the 34th Avenue Open Street and when.  Graphic: NYC DOT
A picture of who is using the 34th Avenue Open Street and when. Graphic: NYC DOT

The sensors can count and identify up to nine modes of travel, including pedestrians, cyclists and e-scooters, analyze travel patterns and how they change seasonally, measure how fast each mode of transport is traveling and identify accident hazards. .

The new technology will be tested in all boroughs but Staten Island.

  • In Brooklyn, at Schermerhorn and Smith streets, Flushing and Vanderbilt avenues, Berry and N. Sixth Streets, and will be at Hoyt and Warren Streets.
  • In the Bronx, there will be one sensor located at Willis Street and East 135th Street.
  • In Manhattan, the sensors are located at Central Park West Drive and Columbus Circle, First Avenue and E. They are located at 59th Street, Sixth Avenue and W. 23rd Street and the Brooklyn Bridge.
  • And in Queens, they sit at 34th Avenue and 77th Street, Broadway and Vietor Avenue, and 11th Street and 44th Drive.

DOT says the sensors are purposely placed to provide critical real-time analytics for the high volume of micromobility users, bicyclists and pedestrians — eliminating the need for an employee to count the vehicles within hours. It’s a time-consuming and inefficient process, an agency spokesperson said.

And in Berry and N. On Sixth Street, the sensor spits out a colorful analysis of the street’s traffic patterns — showing how many pedestrians cross the street instead of cars, and where and how cyclists move.

Crosswalks as seen from the sensor on Berry Street.  Graphic: NYC DOT
Crosswalks as seen from the sensor on Berry Street. Graphic: NYC DOT

The sensors can help solve the misallocation of public space where cars often get most of the room, even if the cars are dominated by pedestrians or cyclists.

On Lexington Avenue, for example, where the city plans to expand sidewalks away from cars, a manual DOT analysis found that cars occupying three vehicle travel lanes account for only 17 percent of the use, while pedestrians occupy only one-third of the public space, 76 percent of street users. Throughout the day in some places, pedestrians outnumber drivers four to one, according to the DOT.

And on the popular First Avenue bike lane, a 2021 vehicle count showed that cars and trucks outnumbered bikes, even though drivers had 12 times more space on the city’s streets. One of the sensors will be located at First Avenue and E. 59th Street.

Those numbers followed a similar pattern on Second Street, where the count showed there were 323 cars and trucks and 171 bikes, or 1.9 cars and trucks, for every bicycle, despite eight feet of space on the wide street. Legs for movement and storage of cars.

But advocates doubt it will make a difference. The city lacks not information, but enforcement and politics. As an example, bike lanes are blocked by cars with signs on them.

“More information is always good, but it doesn’t clear court officers from the Lafayette Street bike lane. Our yawning gap is in leadership and management, not technology and data,” said John Orcutt of BK New York.

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