NYC DOT - Pedestrian Mobility Plan

NYC is a city of pedestrians who rely on an interconnected network of sidewalks and street crossings to comfortably travel around our city.

NYC DOT developed a holistic, data-driven framework to identify pedestrian needs and provide design guidelines. The NYC Pedestrian Mobility Plan informs how we design our sidewalks and streets. This guidance builds upon existing safety and accessibility guidelines to account for pedestrian comfort and convenience. A more pleasant pedestrian space will encourage more walking trips, which benefits the city by reducing the demand for vehicles.

Why a Pedestrian Mobility Plan? - Presentation to New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) in November 2023

Pedestrian Use and Demand

Corridor Categories

The NYC Pedestrian Mobility Plan uses anticipated pedestrian volumes based on ‘pedestrian generators’ to designate five types of streets in NYC. Pedestrian generators include transit, businesses, schools, tourist attractions, and parks. The five categories include: Baseline Street, Community Connector, Neighborhood Corridor, Regional Corridor, and Global Corridor.
Dive deeper into the methodology to categorize each street into one of these corridor types

Baseline Street

Streets that have low pedestrian volumes with infrequent passing

Typically residential streets with no widespread pedestrian generators

Makes up roughly 60% of city roads

Community Connector

Streets that have individuals passing one another or small groups

Residential streets that connect to nearby destinations such as small parks or schools

Makes up about 25% of city roads

Neighborhood Corridor

Streets that have small groups of people passing each other

Consistent pedestrian destinations, such as neighborhood business districts or large schools or parks

Makes up roughly 12% of city roads

Regional Corridor

Streets that have crowds of people passing each other

Concentration of pedestrian destinations or large-scale attractions that draw people from around the region

Makes up about 2.5% of city roads

Global Corridor

Streets that have large crowds of people moving in many directions

High concentration of pedestrian destinations that draw people from around the world

Comprises less than 0.5% of city roads

Pedestrian Demand Map

Every street in NYC is assigned one of the five corridor categories as shown on the Pedestrian Demand Map on NYC Open Data. This map does not reflect the existing physical accommodation of pedestrians.

Anatomy of a Sidewalk

Our sidewalks accommodate a variety of uses and amenities. Landscaping, cafes, and street furniture are an essential part of what makes a city attractive. But we need to make sure there is space for the comfortable movement of pedestrians.

There are three different zones that make up the sidewalk including: walk lane, clear path, and furnishing zone.

Walk Lane

The portion of the sidewalk that accommodates pedestrian movement. This includes a clear path and can also include appropriately spaced amenities that allow for pedestrian activity between them.

Clear Path

The portion of the walk lane that is free from amenities for uninterrupted pedestrian flow.

Furnishing Zone

The section of the sidewalk between the curb and walk lane that does not accommodate pedestrian movement. Amenities, such as lighting, benches, tree beds, utility poles, or bicycle parking, can be placed in this section.

Design Guidelines

NYC DOT has developed new design guidelines based on the functional needs of our sidewalks while focusing on improving the pedestrian experience. These guidelines are aspirational, not regulatory. However, they do include the existing regulatory requirements of revocable consents and ADA.

Current guidelines include sidewalk width and sidewalk amenity spacing, with more guidelines under development.

Please visit the Street Design Manual website for additional street design standards, guidelines, and policies.

Sidewalk Width

Each corridor category has different needs for pedestrian space. The corridor’s need determines the desirable sidewalk widths and related walk lane and clear path widths. These widths account for and expand upon the existing revocable consent requirements.

The table below defines how much sidewalk space in feet (‘) is needed for walk lanes, clear path and furnishing zones.

Corridor Category
Sidewalk Width
Furnishing Zone
Walk Lane
Clear Path

Baseline Street
8' +
3'
5'
4'

Community Connector
10' +
2'
8'
5'

Neighborhood Corridor
15' +
3'
12'
8'

Regional Corridor
20' +
5'
15'
12'

Global Corridor
25' +
5'
20'
15'

Sidewalk Amenity Spacing

All corridors share amenity spacing guidelines to ensure pedestrians have enough space while navigating the sidewalk and passing other pedestrians.

Furnishing Zone
Walk Lane
Clear Path

If objects in the furnishing zone do not impede upon the walk lane, they can be as close as individual guidelines indicate.
Objects in the walk lane should be no more than 10 feet wide, and at least 15 feet apart to allow sufficient space for pedestrians to pass each other.
Clear path must be free of objects but can shift as long as it is gradual and maintains the same diagonal clearance as the clear path requirements.