The city Department of Transportation (DOT) announced on Thursday that it would install so-called “green wave” signal timing on stretches of three north-south roads in Manhattan.
The DOT will now time traffic lights on 1st, 2nd, and 8th Avenues to allow bicycles and vehicles to travel at 15 miles per hour. The intervals are designed to allow cyclists to hit a series of green lights, clearing the way for them to bike multiple blocks without stopping.
Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn, in a statement, said green wave timing keeps cyclists moving at speeds that are safer for them and for pedestrians, while ensuring they abide by traffic rules.
“For a driver or cyclist, hitting back-to-back green lights feels like magic,” Flynn said. “Green Wave corridors leverage that feeling to encourage safer travel speeds across transportation modes, with nearly no impact on nearby streets, while keeping pedestrians safer.”
The commissioner framed signal retiming as one of many moves DOT is making to reduce deaths and severe injuries from traffic crashes via the city’s Vision Zero program.
“Under Vision Zero, we’re prepared to use every tool available, from street redesign to signal retiming and updating curb regulations, in order to deliver safer streets for New Yorkers,” he said.
The three corridors where DOT will install green wave signaling this month.Image Courtesy of DOT
The 1st Avenue green wave will run full-time between Houston and 19th Streets, and during off-peak hours and on weekends from Houston Street to 34th Street. It will be in effect full-time on 2nd Avenue between Houston and 32nd Streets and on 8th Avenue from Canal to 23rd Streets.
It will begin in the middle of this month and run through the summer.
DOT insists the retiming will not slow private vehicles and MTA buses down because they rarely exceed 15 mph on days when traffic is heavier.
According to a data analysis that DOT conducted of green wave timing that it installed on Manhattan’s 3rd Avenue between 59th and 96th Streets last year, the signal intervals helped to reduce overnight vehicular speeding. However, vehicle speeds remained mostly unchanged during the daytime.
Moreover, DOT found that 85% of cyclists traveling along Third Avenue crossed on a green light after implementing green wave timing — up from 81%.
It also revealed that cyclists were more compliant, stopping at one red light, with the promise of moving through many green lights. The green wave resignalling on Brooklyn’s Hoyt Street boosted cyclists’ red light compliance by 10%.
On Third Avenue, the green wave reduced cyclist crashes from 12 to 7 and pedestrian and cyclist crashes from 4 to 0 between 2024 and last year, according to DOT’s analysis.
“Data garnered from the 3rd Avenue Green Wave deployment supports the expansion, and these types of data-driven technological upgrades to the transit network can deliver safety and efficiency in equal measure,” Regional Plan Association President Tom Wright said in a statement.