Is This the Canal Street Fix We've Been Waiting For? It's Time to Chime In.

The Department of Transportation proposes to ease sidewalk crowding, like this one at Centre Street, by creating a wider "super sidewalk" and eliminating a lane of traffic. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Is there a solution to the congestion madness and looming dangers of Canal Street?

That’s the decades-long problem that the city’s Department of Transportation is attempting to tackle with its Canal Street Safety Improvement Proposal [1] that is up for online comment here [2] until the end of the year. A public presentation by DOT will be made on Wednesday Dec. 3 to Community Board 1’s Transportation and Street Activities Permit Committee [3].

The plan is meant to make street crossings safer, sidewalks less congested and traffic “calmer.” Since being introduced in September, the plan has drawn a mostly positive (80%) response to an online survey, according to the DOT. But a public presentation [4] on the plan held Nov. 1 drew a large contingent of both supporters and opponents. (Some of those opposed to the plan claimed the survey was unrepresentative of the Chinatown community.)

Backers of the plan say that the proposed full-block sidewalk extensions (between Broadway and Elizabeth Street) will finally ease crowding and the shorter crossing distances will especially aid the less sure-footed. “Canal Street is hostile to old people and people with mobility problems,” said Bill Ferns of the Senior Advocacy Leadership Team. “I think the majority of the fatalities that occured in the area have been seniors because of traffic problems. So things have to change, and this is a plan in the right direction.”

“It feels like you’re in a traffic jam walking down the sidewalk, and that’s because there isn’t enough space for the volume of pedestrians,” said Dan Miller, who is frequently in the area for medical appointments. So we need to bring in wider sidewalks.”

Opponents say they fear that the DOT’s proposal to remove commercial parking spaces from Broadway to Elizabeth Street will hurt businesses along that strip. (Loading zones would be located on side streets.) “If these vehicles are forced to stop in active traffic lanes, Canal Street will effectively be reduced to a single functioning lane in each direction,” said Thomas Chan, co-chair of the Greater Chinatown Civic Coalition. “This will create severe congestion on Canal Street, spilling over to the Holland Tunnel, the Manhattan Bridge, and all surrounding side streets.”

As for the plan for wider sidewalks, said another opponent, “instead what is needed is the enforcement of laws against the illegal vendors.” 

The preliminary plan, presented at the meeting by Amy Howden-Chapman of the DOT, is described below, with illustrations by the city’s Department of Transportation.

West Street to Hudson Street

•A two-way protected bike lane is proposed for Watts Street, from West to Canal. Eastbound cyclists would have the option of continuing along the proposed two-and-half blocks of protected bike lane from Watts to 6th Avenue or turn off at Varick or Hudson Street to the bike lane on Grand Street.

• A new pedestrian crossing is proposed between Canal Street and Hudson River Park.

• New marked crosswalks and curb extensions would be added to ease pedestrian access to Canal Park.

Hudson Street to West Broadway

• The DOT illustration shows the two-and-a-half blocks of the proposed bike lane on Canal Street, which would be created by taking the current two eastbound travel lanes and turning it into one eastbound travel lane. “The traffic model says that this should function and not make conditions worse than they are today,” said Amy Howden-Chapman of the DOT.

• Howden-Chapman called the intersection where Canal Street, 6th Avenue and Laight Street merge “one of the most dangerous intersections along the corridor” and one that has repeatedly drawn calls for improvements. The DOT proposes to install a concrete island on Canal Street at 6th Avenue to provide safety when crossing Canal and to provide curb extensions to the sidewalks on both sides of Laight Street near 6th Avenue.

• Signal timing would be reduced from three phases to two, which is meant to keep traffic moving more quickly through the intersection and reduce congestion.

• The DOT is considering banning left turns onto West Broadway, which Howden-Chapman said would allow for reduced signal timing and the addition of curb extensions.

West Broadway to Broadway

 • Along with preventing left turns on West Broadway, the DOT wants to ban turns onto Greene Street. “We know that a lot of vehicle movements are along Canal Street, vehicles trying to get into the right lane and sometimes not doing it in the most safe way,” Howden-Chapman said. “So [we’re] really clarifying for drivers where they need to be, what lane they need to be in, and prioritizing pedestrians at these dangerous intersections is part of the design process here.” 

• Create curb extensions to narrow pedestrian crossing distances at Church Street and Mercer Street.

Broadway to Baxter Street 

•A traffic lane would be eliminated in order to widen the sidewalk and “use that space for the primary user along this part of the corridor, which is the pedestrian,” Howden-Chapman said of the “super sidewalks.” “We think about them as kind of the fast travel lane for a pedestrian. They also have the advantage of reducing the crossing distances.” 

•Loading zones would be eliminated and local deliveries moved to side streets. Howden-Chapman said the DOT wants to “balance what has to happen for businesses to be able to effectively carry on, get what they need, but to use this space for pedestrians, the primary user along the stretch.”

Baxter to Bowery

• Close Walker Street from Baxter to Canal to create a pedestrian plaza.

• “Edge materials” to prevent vehicles and cyclists from traveling onto the widened pedestrian space have yet to be selected.

• Loading zones would be located on side streets, not Canal Street, from Broadway to Elizabeth Street. 

• The widened sidewalk continues as far as Elizabeth Street.

• There would be concrete crossing islands at intersections where there is space.