Reimagining West 72nd Street

A People-First Crosstown Corridor Connecting Central Park and Riverside Park

West 72nd Street is about a half mile long, situated between Central Park and Riverside Park. It’s home to 20,000 residents, hundreds of businesses, and is a destination for countless visitors and tourists. This short street includes one of the busiest subway stations in the system and a marquee public space at Verdi Square. It’s also an important east-west spine for bus riders, bike riders, and pedestrians of all kinds.

But the design of the street is out of scale and out of date, to the detriment of everyone who uses it.

It’s time to remake West 72nd Street as a place that centers the experience of those who live, work, and otherwise rely on this vibrant and vital crosstown corridor.

Want to take action? Click the link above to send a letter to elected officials and the DOT urging them to be bold in reimagining West 72nd Street. Want to learn more? Read on to see how a reimagined corridor could work and the many benefits it would bring.

Yesterday: Park Thoroughfare

19th Century Connector – What’s Old is New Again

The West 72nd Street of today was originally established by the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which is responsible for the street grid we’ve all come to associate with Manhattan.

By the end of the 19th century, West 72nd Street had evolved into a “park thoroughfare” extending from Central Park to the west, past rows of elegant homes, toward the Hudson River and newly constructed Riverside Park. Access to the street was limited to residents and workers who had business on those blocks.

From the New York Times Streetscapes column:

“With its comfortably appointed dwellings, West 72nd Street was a major residential boulevard, connecting the carriage drives of Central Park with Riverside Drive...The entire street was under the supervision of the Department of Parks, which prohibited (non-local) business traffic and paid for special plantings along the sidewalks…Later, the automobile converted a genteel boulevard into an internal combustion highway.”

A lot has changed in the last 125 years, but there’s something both practical and poetic about this early version of the street. What if we once again considered West 72nd Street a connection between the green spaces of Riverside Park and Central Park and made it a tree-lined parkway for people?

Today: Urban Arterial

20th Century Priorities – Wasted Space

West 72nd Street’s park-connecting days vanished with the rise of 20th century motordom. Today the street is a vast four-lane arterial that is spatially inefficient, under-utilized as a transportation corridor, and under-realized as public space—an arrangement that doesn’t work particularly well for anyone.

The Street

A survey of the roadway* along West 72nd Street reveals a disproportionate amount of space is devoted to motor vehicles, an arrangement that invites excess traffic and renders a large piece of public space inaccessible to anyone outside of an automobile.

*Curb uses were documented along each block from Central Park West to Riverside Drive; the results below reflect the entirety of this corridor. Street space was calculated by adding the vehicles travel lane area to the curb area to get an overall picture of the roadway.

Car use dominates the sixty-foot roadway, with 88% of that space devoted to vehicle lanes and parking. Take bus stops and no parking/no standing out of the mix, and it leaves less than 2% of street space for all the various other uses that could support people on these blocks.

The Curb

A similar condition can be observed at the curb, where parking is the dominant use despite private cars moving just one quarter of people along the corridor (more on this below).

40% of the parking on West 72nd Street is free at all times, and virtually all of the parking is free overnight—the original sin of present-day New York City curb use. 

Setting aside bus stops and no parking/no standing zones, we’re left with less than 6% of curb space for all the other uses. We’ll explore below what those uses could be and they would benefits they would bring.

The Sidewalks

In terms of pedestrian space, the New York City Department of Transportation classifies West 72nd Street as a ‘Regional Corridor,’ defined as:

“Streets that have crowds of people passing each other, and a concentration of pedestrian destinations or large-scale attractions that draw people from around the region.” 

This translates to a lot of people with not quite enough room to move, as everyone from residents to workers, day-trippers to tourists, squeeze into shared space that’s often too narrow, obstructed, or both.

Counting Modes and People

In observations along each block of the corridor*, the numbers of people moving by foot, micromobility, and bus outnumbered those in motor vehicles by a margin of 3 to 1.

*Screenline movement counts were conducted over a two-hour period on a sunny Monday from late morning to early afternoon. Each mode that crossed at a given location was tallied—every person walking or riding a micromobility device, as well as each bus and motor vehicle. To estimate the number of people moved, pedestrians and micromobility devices were counted as one each, buses were assumed to carry 25 people each, and motor vehicles 1.25 people each.

People on Buses

Buses made up just 1% of movements we observed along the corridor, yet accounted for an estimated 22.5% of people, illustrating their extraordinary space efficiency—moving 9% more people than private cars in just one tenth of the space in our observations.

Community District 7 has some of the slowest bus speeds in the city, averaging just 6.34 mph, and West 72nd Street doesn’t have bus-priority lanes, which means bus riders are at the mercy of traffic congestion. Also, many of the bus stops along the corridor lack shelter, which can make taking the bus less practical and appealing.

People on Bikes (and other small wheels)

West 72nd is used by people on various kinds of small wheeled devices—including tourists, recreational riders, working cyclists, and people just trying to get across town.

People on bikes and other micromobility made up nearly one tenth of the movements we observed and 7% of the people moving along the corridor—a significant number considering there is no dedicated space to travel safely.

People on Foot

It’s often said of New Yorkers: we’re all pedestrians at some point in our journey, and that is abundantly true on West 72nd, where crowds of people spill in and out of the subway at Broadway, tourists gawk as they stroll between the parks, locals frequent businesses, and residents run errands or walk their dogs.

In our observations, people walking accounted for 62% of the movements and 45% of all people along the corridor. There are many reasons to walk or roll along West 72nd, and those doing it could use more space.

These more efficient modes of travel are already trying to claim space on West 72nd Street. What if we gave the people walking, riding bikes, and taking the bus the room they need to get around more safely, comfortably, and efficiently?

Tomorrow: Complete Street

21st Century Corridor – Prioritizing People

The need to rebalance the uses on West 72nd Street is nothing new. In fact, Community Board 7 passed a resolution in 2020 with overwhelming support, asking for a two-way protected bike lane along the corridor connecting the parks and including pedestrian safety improvements and loading zones:

“Community Board 7/Manhattan calls on the New York City Department of Transportation to present the board with a proposal for a physically protected two-way bike lane or lanes on West 72nd Street that would run between Central Park West and Riverside Drive or Boulevard and provide cyclists a safe connection to the Hudson River Greenway. The plan should also include infrastructure to protect pedestrians crossing 72nd Street and loading zones sufficient to meet the demand for deliveries to businesses and residences along the street.”

What would West 72nd Street look like if it better served everyone who uses the street?

People on buses might be given pride of place on the street and those in private cars considered guests. People on bikes might get the kind of high-comfort infrastructure that enables anyone, regardless of age or ability, to ride a bike for transportation. People walking and rolling might get to stroll a tree-lined street that’s comfortable to cross and a pleasant place to be.

A West 72nd Street “complete street” would:

• Connect two iconic parks that collectively receive over 50 million visitors each year.

• Calm traffic, reduce noise, and clean the air for residents along the corridor.

• Make it safer and more comfortable for pedestrians to get around.

• Act as a vital east-west spine in an eventual comprehensive cycling network.

• Help businesses by moving people, goods, and services more efficiently in limited street space.

• Plus, with lots of trees and rain gardens, the birds, butterflies, and bees would love it.

Here’s what that could look like:

From grayway to greenway