5 ways in which NYC (and other cities) can design streets around outdoor dining
By Annie Weinstock
In April of 2020, in response to the effect Covid-19 had on the restaurant industry, Vilnius, Lithuania announced a plan to turn over many of its streets to outdoor dining. Following suit that June, Mayor de Blasio announced that NYC would repurpose thousands of parking spaces for outdoor dining. For many cities doing the same, an expedited permitting process laid bare the possibilities for skipping the bureaucracy and public process that so often mar positive change in the city. Almost overnight, 10,000 restaurant owners in NYC, as well as many more across the US and around the world, opened umbrellas, nailed together plywood and corrugated plastic, and built “streateries.”
The idea for restaurants was to put something up and get back to business (NACTO’s Streets for Pandemic Response Recovery provided sound guidance for making this happen). It was also expected that after the summer of 2020, the structures would need to come down, so the structures were cheap, improvised, and DIY.
As the summer marched on and outdoor dining appeared not to be a major Covid transmission risk, restaurants experimented with design. Still using fairly cheap materials like plywood, paint, and plants, the restaurants began doing what restaurants do — designing, innovating, and bringing in customers.
Open Restaurants are here to stay
By the fall of 2020, it became clear that outdoor dining had truly transformed outdoor life in cities. Few drivers complained about the loss of parking, likely owing to deep concerns for local restaurants. NYC’s program became permanent. The City released guidelines regarding winterization, roadway barriers, snow removal procedures, and Covid safety protocols. Restaurants continued upgrading and improving their streateries.
Streateries and their streets
From the perspective of creating people-oriented cities, streateries are incredible: they establish thousands of new nodes of outdoor activity in places where previously a parked car sat dormant. But their relationship to the streets is, at times, haphazard. This was fine last June when quickly opening outdoor dining was the number one priority. But now we need to consider carefully how to make the most of these new nodes and prioritize safety on the streets around them.
As restaurant owners begin to think long-term about their streateries, it is critical that city departments of transportation remain several steps ahead. The risk is that over the coming year, streatery structures will become more permanent and more difficult to move. Cities should be working now on linking their open restaurants programs with good street design for long-term street transformation. Here are 5 things they can do:
1. Plan for cycling around streateries
Most restaurants are on commercial corridors with significant street activity. These also tend to be the corridors with the most cycling. Where parking-protected bike lanes already existed, streateries were built in the parking spots, on the street side of the bike lane, so bicycles pass between the streatery and the curb. Where there were conventional bike lanes with parking at the curb, streateries were built between the curb and the bike lane.
It is well-documented that protected bike lanes are safer than conventional bike lanes, as they provide greater separation from traffic and reduce the problem of double parked cars and trucks blocking the bike lane. Where today there are streateries acting as buffers between a bike lane and the street, it a far more pleasant experience for cyclists than the typical alienating experience of staring out at traffic. It is, of course, far safer as well. Getting this design right, however, requires attention to detail or conflicts may emerge between cyclists and the functioning of the restaurant.
Every street with streateries is a destination and should be treated as such. A streatery-protected bike lane should be placed on every streatery street. Streets that already have conventional bike lanes should simply flip the cycle lane and the restaurants. Where width is a concern, consider more radical solutions (see #5), or site-specific improvements.
2. Provide loading zones
Nyc.gov contains a list of curbside regulations and a “yes” or “no” indicating whether restaurants can construct a streatery within each type of zone. Parking zones are a yes, bus stops are a no, taxi stands are a no. Interestingly, loading zones are a yes.
While this is reasonable from the perspective of providing curb space to restaurants, it does beg the question, “What of the loading zones?”
NYCDOT and any other city departments of transportation with this rule should replace all lost loading zones as close as possible to the original loading zone. Additionally, loading zones, as a practice, should be provided on every block where streateries exist as each streatery means one less legal parking space for delivery vehicles and thus, more likelihood of double parking.
3. Liven any dead space between streateries
Streateries have been erected wherever their restaurants are. In some cases, they leave awkward dead spaces that are too short for comfortably parking a car. These spaces are either empty or are used for longer-term storage.
These spaces should be reaped for all their people-oriented potential. They could be parklets! Secure bike parking! Citi Bike parking! Performance spaces!
4. Calm traffic around streateries
The advent of streateries has, unfortunately, resulted in a new sort of hazard: occasionally, drivers crash into the structures, sometimes injuring diners. This is clearly indicative of the need to calm traffic on the streets. But some people miss this important point and blame outdoor dining.
This kind of reaction, paired with the eventual realization by drivers that some parking has been lost, presents a threat to open restaurants programs.
Cities should be doing everything in their powers to calm traffic on the major commercial streets with streateries so this never happens again. NYCDOT itself has a set of traffic calming guidelines that it should employ without hesitation. Not only will this improve safety for outdoor dining, it will calm traffic on busy commercial streets.
5. And the holy grail… open the streets entirely to people
While most streets in most US cities will continue to allow some traffic, the real holy grail is to turn restaurant streets into bike/ped/transit streets. New York City piloted an Open Streets program in which traffic is not permitted on various corridors during certain hours. This program should be expanded to many more streets with high pedestrian activity; streets with lots of outdoor restaurants are de facto good candidates.
New York City should not shy away from making them 24/7 and should ideally prohibit local trips and parking. Doing so would enable them to design the streets and their restaurants in a more integrated and permanent way. Last summer when Brooklyn’s Vanderbilt Ave was an Open Street, restaurants placed their tables in the center of the street. Permanent center-of-the-street dining areas activate the center of the street and allow pedestrians to browse store windows.
But the Vanderbilt restaurants could not build permanent areas for these streateries because they had to move them frequently.
Eventually, open streets could be built out with nicer pavers, play structures for children, and seating, creating many more true pedestrian malls in our cities.
The time is now
NYC’s Open Restaurants is a young program. Streateries are still popping up and investment in structures is still relatively marginal. NYC and other cities should implement these important changes to the streets around them before restaurants begin to transform their structures into something more permanent. Providing free outdoor space to restaurants gives the city significant leverage in designing around them. While quick implementation citywide of the ideas described above may be difficult, cities should plan now and notify restaurants of the coming changes. It is, however, critical to immediately calm traffic on the streatery streets to avoid every possible opportunity for another crash.
Quick-footed changes to our streets are necessary to pave the way for reorienting the streets towards people. Sometimes they are haphazard but they prove important concepts without endless process. But, as we discussed with the new busways, long-term changes to the streets should be intentional, safe, and beautiful.
