Street Improvement Plans from the DOT as of August 2022
As of August 2022, the DOT has approved the Street Improvement Plan for W. 103rd Street. These schematics depict the planned changes. View a pdf here or click on the gallery images below for block-by-block detailed view.
Results of Our Survey on W. 103rd Street "Open Street" Project
In September and October of 2021, the West 102nd & 103rd Streets Block Association conducted a survey of its membership regarding the designation of W. 103rd St. between Broadway and Riverside Dr. as a “Temporary Limited Local Access Open Street.” Paper surveys were distributed in the Block Association’s fall newsletter, and respondents could either return the paper form in an envelope provided or complete the survey online on Survey Monkey. Here are some numbers. To read more, download the full pdf document recapping the survey at the link below.
- Approximately 2,100 newsletters containing the survey were distributed to the BA membership. We received 190 unique responses, of which 184 were used for analysis. We received a significant number of responses from all the blocks in the membership area, although the response rates from each block varied somewhat.
- Overall, ~80% of respondents first learned of the street’s designation as a Temporary Limited Local Access Open Street from the signage on the barricades. Prior to the survey, about two-thirds knew that the street had this specific designation but only one-third knew what that meant.
- Overall, “as neighborhood pedestrians,” respondents indicated varied levels of satisfaction with the designation. It appears that there are very strong feelings about the designation in the community, as about 35% reported the highest level of satisfaction (a “10” rating) and 22% reported the lowest level of satisfaction (a “1” rating). The disparity was apparent even among bicycle and car users. Similar disparities were observed when respondents were asked to rate the importance of some features of the Open Street designation, as well as the importance of some suggestions for the future of W. 103rd St. as an Open Street. More extensive analysis indicated that there was a strong correlation between respondents’ overall satisfaction with the designation and how much they valued the Open Street features as well as the suggestions for the future of W. 103rd St. as an Open Street.
- 28% of respondents reported difficulties with and/or safety concerns about for-hire drivers (taxi, Access-A-Ride, or other car service) not understanding the traffic restrictions on the Open Street. In addition, about 7% of the respondents acknowledged having a disabling condition. The responses to this open-ended question still need to be summarized.
- About half of all respondents reported taking part in Riverside Park Conservancy activities. About half of those (45) considered the Open Street “a valuable addition” to those activities while 33 felt the Open Street was redundant to the Conservancy’s activities. The remaining open-ended responses still need to be summarized.
- Finally, slightly more than half of the survey takers responded to an invitation to provide “additional comments or questions.” Initial analysis suggests that, of these responses, about 20% were clearly “pro” the Open Street designation while 44% were “con.” The remainder of the comments were not easily characterized and call for further analysis.
Read More in the PDF Below:
| websitesurveyreport_draft01.pdf |
