Transportation

New York City’s transportation network includes everything from sidewalks to subways to ferries. It enables travel to work, school, healthcare, entertainment and shopping. It ensures the delivery of food to the city’s supermarkets, concrete to construction sites and gasoline to fuel stations.

Planning this complex network intelligently is essential to our economic development and New Yorkers’ quality of life. As New York City continues to grow, we must find ways to move people and goods within an often crowded environment. The Department of City Planning (DCP) guides development and investment to support a transportation network that serves all New Yorkers.

Transportation Goals

Safety
Ensure that development supports safe streets, sidewalks and transit

Mobility
Ensure efficient movement of people and goods across all types of transportation

Equity
Provide quality transportation options across all neighborhoods

Sustainability
Invest in and encourage public transit, cycling, walking and other green options like carpooling and shuttles

Transportation Planning at DCP

Transportation planning at DCP is about integrating the movement of people and goods with their needs and surroundings. It often begins with questions that arise at the neighborhood level. In communities across the city, these questions could include whether a ferry route would give people access to new jobs, whether students can walk safely to their local school or whether buildings have enough parking and delivery space.

We consider these questions within the broader picture of transportation demand across neighborhoods and the NYC metro region. For example, as emerging job centers provide alternatives to the typical Manhattan commute, which neighborhoods have easy access them? How is telecommuting changing the way people travel through and around NYC for work?

As NYC’s population and jobs grow and travel needs change, transportation planning is essential to ensuring that our roads and transit serve our communities, city and metro region.

DCP works together with the City and State Departments of Transportation, the MTA, the Port Authority and others on transportation issues. Read more about our Inter-Agency Coordination.