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03_Evaluating the Open Restaurant and Open Street Programs
FALL / 2022
For Urban Informatics
With Lance Mikhail Punay & Annika Nina Yu
In the face of an economic and public health crisis posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, outdoor dining initiatives were rolled out in March 2020 by New York to save its struggling hospitality industry and alleviate crowding in the city’s congested public space. Then in May of the same year, New York City introduced the Open Streets program, closing select corridors to car traffic and transforming streets into public space open to all. Both programs are credited for keeping the hospitality industry afloat during the pandemic and both have made great disruptions to the urban landscape of New York City.
Two years after the initial launch of NYC Open Restaurants, the city made the decision to make it permanent. The aim of the study is to explore just what the impacts of NYC’s Open Restaurant initiatives are. While there are many anecdotal and theoretical arguments that highlight the benefits of and issues with the Open Restaurant program – from vermins to noise disturbances, to sidewalk revitalization and road pedestrianization – the amount of data that collected from the past two years presents an opportunity to use computational methods to measure the impacts of Open Street and Open Restaurant initiatives across different metrics to better critique and understand the program’s current reality. The synthesis of these data could potentially highlight opportunities and pitfalls that can inform the future of this program, from policy alterations to design solutions, if it is to become an urban mainstay.
Main Research Question
- What are the impacts of Open Restaurants on Vehicular Crash Rates, relevant 311 Complaints, and Rodent Complaints in New York City comparing the period of March 2019 to February 2020 and July 2021 to June 2022?
- Additionally, to what extent does the presence of Open Restaurants on Open Streets mitigate or exacerbate these impacts?
Sub-Questions
- What is the geographic distribution of Open Restaurants and Open Restaurants on Open Streets in New York City?
- What are the differences in volumes of the following variables between March 2019 to February 2020 and July 2021 to June 2022? •Vehicular Crash Rates •Relevant 311 Complaints •Rodent Complaints
- Is there a correlation between Open Restaurants and Open Restaurants on Open Streets and the following variables? •Vehicular Crash Rates •Relevant 311 Complaints •Rodent Complaints
When we ran the correlations between the count of
each metric (number of crashes, number of relevant 311
complaints, and number of rodent sighting) during a post-
program introduction period of July 2021 to June 2022
and number of outdoor restuarants, all three returned
a positive correlation with an r2 of 0.04 for crashes and
0.07 for rodent sightings. This accounts for the public’s
perception that the Open Resturant program has
contributed to the worsening of these factors.
However, to better account for whether these increases are directly related to the program, we calulated the difference of counts between a pre and post program introduction period (pre-program: March 2019 to February 2020) for each of the three metrics, then checked for the relationship between the difference and the density of Open Restaurants. There remains a positive correlation between rat sightings and Open Restaurant density (r2 of 0.06), allowing us to attribute the increase to the Open Restaurant with more confidence, supporting the anecdotal reports as seen in media. However, there is a relatively strong and negative correlation between number of crashes and Open Restaurant density (r2 of 0.15), suggesting that the program actually made the roads of New York City safer.
However, to better account for whether these increases are directly related to the program, we calulated the difference of counts between a pre and post program introduction period (pre-program: March 2019 to February 2020) for each of the three metrics, then checked for the relationship between the difference and the density of Open Restaurants. There remains a positive correlation between rat sightings and Open Restaurant density (r2 of 0.06), allowing us to attribute the increase to the Open Restaurant with more confidence, supporting the anecdotal reports as seen in media. However, there is a relatively strong and negative correlation between number of crashes and Open Restaurant density (r2 of 0.15), suggesting that the program actually made the roads of New York City safer.