Manhattan

With monthly meetings, social bike rides and local activism, the Manhattan Activist Committee brings people together to change streets on the local level.

No experience is necessary to join in, just a commitment to improving public transit, bicycling and walking in the borough you love.

Follow Us

View our Linktree for updates.

Please email manhattan@transalt.org if you would like to join our Slack channel.

Our Team

Emily Jacobi
TA Manhattan Organizer

Barak Friedman and Paul Krikler
Volunteer Co-Chairs, TA Manhattan Activist Committee

Come to Our Monthly Meeting

You can make real, tangible changes to how streets and sidewalks function in Manhattan.

The Manhattan Activist Committee chooses local campaigns and fights for changes on-the-ground in their neighborhoods, like bike lanes and new pedestrian plazas.

These are the campaigns the Manhattan Activist Committee chose for this year. Come to the next meeting to get involved in making our campaigns a success.

Our meetings are primarily online, but some meetings are in person. Join the Google Group to get meeting alerts or email manhattan@transalt.org for information about upcoming meetings.

Every third Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m.

RSVP by email

Join the Google Group

Support Our Active Campaigns

These are the campaigns the Manhattan Activist Committee chose for this year.

All Campaigns

The Miracle on 42nd Street

As one of Manhattan’s busiest and most iconic streets, 42nd Street can and should prioritize pedestrians, bus riders, and bike riders.

Broadway Linear Park

We are calling on the Mayor and our elected officials to redesign Broadway from Columbus Circle to Union Square into the Broadway Linear Park (BLiP) for everyone to enjoy for generations to come.

The BLiP will transform the avenue into a new destination, integrating nature, art, design, and people in a unique way, inspiring New Yorkers and visitors and transforming this boulevard into an oasis for businesses while encouraging sustainable, safe, and healthy transportation choices.

River to River, and Around the Park

We are calling on the NYC Department of Transportation and our elected officials to build safe crosstown access in Upper Manhattan.

The vast majority of New Yorkers do not move around the city and commute by car. In Manhattan, only 5.9% of owned vehicles are used for commuting and more people are choosing walking and cycling as a green and preferred means of transportation. However, our neighborhoods on the Upper East and West Sides still lack safe east-west corridors to move across town.

Fix Canal Street

Canal Street is the most dangerously congested street in Lower Manhattan; support traffic calming and safety to fix Canal Street.

Our History

Founded in 2013, the Manhattan Activist Committee brought together two longtime and wildly-successful TA activist committees, the Upper West Side Street Renaissance and Eastside Activist Committee. The Manhattan Activist Committee and its predecessors are directly responsible for New York City's first Complete Street – with a protected bike lane, pedestrian amenities, and Select Bus Service – on 1st and 2nd Avenues.

These activists get credit for more than the inception of this complete street; after two years and 2,500 handwritten letters, they successfully secured its extension from the Financial District to Harlem. Now the Complete Street on 1st Avenue is the longest Complete Street in the nation.

The committees also secured car-free Central Park, a safer, more continuous East River Greenway, parking-protected bike lanes on 9th Avenue, Grand Street, Columbus Avenue, Allen Street (and scores of other local lanes), crosstown bike paths through Central Park, and bike corrals on the Lower East Side.