Walk or Bike? Greater Nyack Bike Walk Master Plan – Public Input Requested

This project, funded by a grant from the New NY Bridge Community Benefits fund, complements a 2017 project in the Town of Orangetown with similar goals but covering an adjacent geography. The Village of Nyack is acting as the lead agency on behalf of stakeholders in the Village of South Nyack, the Village of Upper Nyack and the Nyack School District.

The Nyack river villages have a reputation as walkable communities. They are also popular destinations for bicyclists. The Greater Nyack Bike Walk Master Plan project hopes to build on this reputation by studying what works and what can work better for residents and visitors who want to get around the villages and hamlets in the Nyack School district without a car.

Project consultant Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc (FHI) has created two websites to gather input for this effort. The master plan recommendations will use this information, as well as field work, interviews with decision makers and a variety of community engagement events.

Residents and visitors who walk, drive or ride a bicycle in the Nyack school district are invited to visit:

BikeWalkGreaterNyack.com— a website which describes project goals and encourages site visitors to sign up to receive emails with project updates, invitations to attend public workshops, and planned pop-up demonstrations.
NyackBikeWalkSurvey.com— a crowdsourced, interactive map where site visitors can drop pins on a map to highlight safety concerns and intersections and streets which need improvement.

“One of the consistent things we’ve heard is that everyone thinks cars drive too fast on our local roads,” said Dave Zornow, Bike/Walk Master Plan committee chairperson. “Traffic calming practices have become widely used throughout the country to slow traffic, leading to increased traffic safety for pedestrian, bicyclists and motorists,” he said.

Good transportation design can save lives — and lead to healthier lifestyles by offering active transportation and recreational options. “Encouraging walking and bicycling for all ages and abilities requires careful consideration to respect local communities while offering facilities, on-road and off, that are safe, functional, and inviting,” said Fitzgerald & Halliday’s Chris Henry. “A transportation network that supports bicycle use and pedestrian activity is a key component of a livable community, offering recreation, economic vitality, commuting options, and access to transit.” Similar projects led by FHI include the Jersey City, NJ Pedestrian Enhancement Plan, the Capitol Region Complete Streets Plan in Hartford, CT, and the Connecticut Statewide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.

More than 150 pins have been dropped on the NyackBikeWalkSurvey.com interactive map thus far, pointing out issues such as missing sidewalks, crosswalks and ADA ramps, lack of bike lanes or insufficient shoulders, roads that are too wide to cross, and places where motorists don’t yield. The project team will evaluate all of the crowdsourced suggestions and look for patterns which they will report back to the participating municipalities in early Summer 2018.