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SIP FAQs!

Have Questions? Read the SIP FAQs!

Community Board 7’s Full Board and Transportation Committee endorsed the SIP in December 2022. Only one dissenting vote was cast.
Yes. The only restriction on vehicles is that they travel at 5 MPH to ensure pedestrian safety.

The safety improvements and new public spaces created by the SIP will benefit thousands of people who use W 103rd Street every day to go to and from the subway or just walking around the neighborhood.

Only 13 parking spaces are repurposed across the 3 blocks of the SIP to make this possible. All other parking spaces will remain available as they currently are.

Parking is only prohibited on W 103 St. between Broadway and West End Avenue for roughly 5 hours on the date of the Open Street’s single monthly event day during the OS season (April-October). However, handicap vehicles are always allowed to park and to drive on the Open Street during these events.

Over the past 10 years, there have been 31 injuries on this section of W 103rd St. (and 39 across all of W 103rd St.) due to traffic crashes – View the data on NYC Crash Mapper

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and esteemed New York magazine architecture critic Justin Davidson has described our neighborhood as The Upper West Side’s Zone of Pedestrian Death because of the high amount of traffic crashes.

For the past three years, numerous surveys and dozens of public events have been held to obtain input into redesigning West 103rd Street prior to DOT developing the SIP. The West 102-103rd Streets Block Association conducted zoom meetings and published articles about the Open Street since it was created by DOT as a pandemic-era measure in 2020.  In late 2021 they conducted a survey of residents that showed that only 22% opposed the Open Street.
The DOT plans to complete the initial construction of the SIP in the summer of 2023. Learn More Here!

The DOT-SIP was the result of a 3-year democratic process. It was approved by Community Board 7’s Transportation Committee and Full Board with only one dissenting vote in June and September 2022.

Here’s a partial list of some of the actions taken to inform the community and solicit input in the SIP and W 103rd Open Street:

  • Volunteers, who support the city’s West 103rd Street Open Streets program, worked under the aegis of DOT, with NYPD, CB7, and Community Partners – including WSFSSH, Co-ops, Condos, Tenant Groups, Hosteling International, NYCHA Tenants Association, local businesses, and the Block Association – spent the past 3 years holding frequent public events, conducting multiple surveys, and providing thoroughly researched, publicly accessible reports to city agencies.
  • Months before DOT developed the SIP, dozens of events were held under the Open Streets program, sponsored by DOT, and supported by the NYPD and Mayor’s Office to ask the community if they wanted the SIP, how they wanted it to look and what they wanted included, and what their transportation and public space needs were.
  • Ample information and notice of the SIP and Open Streets programs were provided to the Community Board 7 and 102nd-103rd Streets Block Association at events and meetings. Members’ input was solicited on multiple occasions, which influenced and informed planning for the SIP. Thousands were surveyed and interviewed through the above processes.
  • The DOT’s SIP and Open Street on W 103rd St. have been the subject of plentiful local media coverage.
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