Mobility

With automated vehicles on the horizon, it’s time to envision the cities that will accommodate them.

Traffic lights were originally conceived for horse carriages. We need to reinvent them for the age of autonomous vehicles.

New York City can become environmentally self-sufficient if we repurpose and rebalance city streets and use the subway to deliver goods across the five boroughs.

As electric cars and the sharing economy become increasingly widespread, we have an opportunity to create a comprehensive mobility concept for New York City.

In the fall of 2016, the Urban Design Forum invited its Fellows and experts to help us craft a vision for the future of mobility in New York City. Within these pages, you’ll find an inventory of imaginative thinking on what our city’s transportation landscape could be.

Traditional transit cannot serve the complex needs of our cities today. Bike share can help us build a more connected and equitable future.

With the introduction of automated vehicles on the horizon, we have the chance to reclaim our roadways—unlocking space for green corridors, neighborhood connections, and new development.

By capping two blocks of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway trench in Williamsburg, we can provide verdant open space for the neighborhood and build the better future the community envisions.

With the introduction of a Transit Maintenance Assessment District, the true beneficiaries of rail transit—businesses and property owners—would pay their fair share.

Our historic subway stations are our most used public spaces. Partnering with the private sector will give them the innovation and investment they need to thrive.

Let’s transform New York’s subway stations into public realm destinations that inspire civic pride.

Three Forefront Fellows write on the current lack of public transit in Red Hook, Brooklyn and propose new ways for the City to utilize emerging technologies to improve neighborhood accessibility.

Our inaugural Forefront class spent the past year meeting with Carto, Intersection, Kickstarter, Sidewalk Labs, and NYU CUSP to discuss how smart city technology is changing the way we experience and build cities. We are excited to publish the cohort's proposals, ideas and critiques on design in the digital era.

During the spring of 2013, the Urban Design Forum invited distinguished civic leaders, developers and designers to pitch bold visions for a more competitive, livable and sustainable New York. The result was a collection of forty courageous proposals imagining rebuilt infrastructure, reformed government, and an animated public realm.

Some of the greatest opportunities for new housing and development within a stone’s throw of Manhattan line the East River in Astoria and Long Island City. By creating a new light rail line in those neighborhoods, we could create an enormous opportunity for new investment.