Good afternoon. My name is Tiffany-Ann Taylor and I’m the Vice President for Transportation for the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a 100 year old civic organization working toward better mobility, economic opportunity, affordable housing, and a more resilient New York City metropolitan region.
RPA supports the three pieces of legislation being considered today. More public restrooms and a new open spaces community program are common sense proposals that will help improve our public spaces for everyone who uses them.
We are strongly supportive of a Greenway Master Plan. The benefits of greenways and cycling have the potential for generational impact. Greenways have the ability to increase bike ridership; enhance safety by reducing intermodal conflicts; reduce air pollution while shrinking NYC’s carbon footprint; and create space to accommodate new modes of transportation and micro-mobility.
Most recently, we wrote in support of funding the QueensWay to transform the abandoned 3.5 mile LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch line into a park to connect underserved neighborhoods in Queens. In June 2020, we also released The Five Borough Bikeway report, which also calls for dedicated, citywide bike infrastructure.
Recent greenway expansion has been opportunistic, with too few projects developing and recognizing greenways as its own critical urban infrastructure. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color have seen the least of this small amount of development, which is an unfortunate and an all too familiar casualty of inequitable transportation planning.
A Greenway master plan directed by this legislation should consider:
A comprehensive plan that prioritizes communities that have experienced historic disinvestment, and those that lack access to open spaces
Identifying and connecting the existing bike network fragments
Ensuring proper interagency coordination to create and maintain a uniform user experience among greenways
Maintaining a state-of-good-repair for the entire system
Avoiding an over-reliance on private developers and ensuring rights-of-way are for multiple uses and public benefit
Design infrastructure to protect the user while creating an inviting space for all
RPA thoroughly supports Council’s recommendation for these three local laws.
