3 Livable Streets Ideas for the UWS in 2026

Creating environments that support the safety and well-being of children should be our top priority. Yet take a look at the streets around our schools and you get another idea. School buses mix with private cars, delivery trucks, and more, creating a dangerous and chaotic mess. Add rows of parked cars to the mix, and it’s easy to see what the real priority is.

School Streets aim to fix that by designating car-free space in front of schools, creating a safe place to socialize, exercise, and just delight in being a kid. Car-free school streets also make it easier and more appealing to get to school by walking and biking, which has a positive impact on kids’ physical and mental health.

The Department of Transportation allows schools to apply for a school street under its Open Streets program, but the process is unnecessarily difficult for school administrators already stretched thin. That partly explains why there are no public schools in Community Districts 7 or 9 participating in the Open Streets program, denying thousands of students and their families all those potential benefits.

Political support from Council Members, and practical support their staff, can provide the momentum necessary to help more schools apply and participate in the program. As then-candidate Zohran Mamdani said, “Every street outside of a school should be an Open Street, and my administration will do that.” That’s the spirit! Now let’s help him make it happen.

Learn more: School Streets for All

For too long, our streets have been built primarily to get drivers quickly from A to B, giving motor vehicles the run of the place while pedestrians and cyclists are an afterthought. This has led to a status quo of excessive traffic and all the ills that come from it: noise, pollution, stress, danger, and social isolation for the young and old.

Low Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs for short) are a way to change the decades-old car-centric paradigm and reverse those ills by shifting the priority of streets to people and community over the movement of vehicles.

By adjusting street patterns to prevent through traffic on key streets, and redirecting non-local trips to wider boundary roads instead, unnecessary traffic is all but eliminated on the traffic-calmed streets (though full access by motor vehicle is maintained for those that need it).

On the Upper West Side, that might look like alternating the one-way direction of each block on a given crosstown street so drivers are unable to use those streets for through trips and are directed to the avenues and wider crosstown arterials instead. Less traffic means more space for community, greater safety for people walking and biking, and an all around better quality of life for everyone.

The great thing about Low Traffic Neighborhoods is that they’re additive, and the positive effects are cumulative: you can add blocks over time, and the longer they’re in place, the safer and more social they become.

Learn more: Low-Traffic Neighborhoods

Cycling cities are happier cities. Cleaner air, quieter streets, increased social connection, and safer ways to get around whatever your age or chosen mode. The ingredients for a successful cycling city start with a safe place to ride a bike on every street; regardless of your origin and destination, there’s a way to get where you’re headed without going out of your way or taking unreasonable risks.

In other words, it takes an effective and thoughtful network of street treatments that make cycling a priority.

The Upper West Side falls far short of an accessible bike network. In the fifteen years since the first protected bike lane went in on Columbus Avenue, Community District 7 still only has protected bike lanes on just three of its six avenues and none of its crosstown streets. Community District 9 has no protected bike lanes at all.

That makes it pretty hard to get around on a bike. It limits trips and discourages many would-be riders, while reinforcing the dangerous and destructive status quo.

The good news is, a network can scale quickly with enough support. The barriers aren’t technical, or even financial; they’re political, and overcoming that is just a matter of will.

Learn more: Getting There: Micromobility on the UWS / Reimagining West 72nd Street