New York set to ban cars from Times Square

[mthq]

NEW YORK, May 24 (UPI) -- Many New York residents and tourists alike say the city's plan to ban cars from traveling through Times Square is a great idea.

The New York Daily News said Saturday some people have applauded the plan to ban all traffic from Broadway between 42nd and 47th Street in Times Square starting Sunday night.

"I think it's going to bring more people and they'll be more comfortable," local food vendor John Galanopolous said of the plan, which will also ban cars from 33rd and 35th Street in Herald Square.

Pittsburgh resident Bill Buettin agreed the traffic ban in those areas would make pedestrian travel easier in New York.

"Not having to worry about crosswalks and stop lights makes it that much easier," the tourist told the Daily News.

But at least one New York resident was less than supportive of the plan, which he feels could hinder the city's numerous motorists.

"There's going to be more traffic. It's not going to work," taxi driver Rafi Hassan told the Daily News. "Most of our customers are here."

[mthq]

Honk, Honk, Aaah

New York Magazine
By Michael Crowley
Published May 17, 2009


source

Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s Transportation commissioner, manages to be equal parts Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. As she prepares to close swaths of Broadway to cars next week, she is igniting a peculiar new culture war—over the role of the automobile in New York.

Sometime early Sunday morning this Memorial Day weekend, a work crew from the New York City Department of Transportation will arrive in Times Square. Waiting for a pause in traffic, the team will close off Broadway at 47th Street, directing southbound cars east to Seventh Avenue. In the weeks to come, construction workers will refashion the next five blocks of the boulevard, turning one of the world’s most congested stretches of asphalt into a 58,000-foot pedestrian plaza. The same will happen a few blocks south, where another stretch of Broadway—from 33rd Street to 35th Street, at Herald Square—will be closed to cars and, by fall, dotted with café tables free for public use.

This simple but dramatic act will amount to bypass surgery on the heart of New York. It will become the most visible component yet of Mayor Bloomberg’s citywide attempt to make New York’s streets calmer, greener, and safer. And it will establish the front lines of a growing movement to tilt the balance of asphalt power away from the automobile and toward cyclists and pedestrians.

On a recent weekday, Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s Transportation commissioner and the woman who dreamed up this plan, is standing at the heart of Times Square and surveying the mayhem around her. Though it is late morning and nothing like the Hieronymus Bosch tableau of the evening rush, traffic is still crawling and honking through the bizarre convergence of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 45th Street. Pedestrians are spilling into the street. A biker shoots up Broadway riding in the wrong direction.

“From a transportation perspective, Broadway has been a problem for 200 years,” Sadik-Khan says. Fifty-thousand cars pass through this point every day, but the knot formed by the intersection of three streets limits traffic speed to roughly four miles per hour. And then there are the people—about 356,000 of them marching through Times Square daily, from aggravated office workers to bewildered midwestern tourist families with roller suitcases. This stretch of Broadway is 140 percent more dangerous than comparable stretches of a midtown avenue.


source

“You can try to tweak it with a little signal change here, maybe a traffic lane there,” Sadik-Khan continues. “But nothing has worked because you’re not reaching the fundamental problem, which is that midtown is basically broken. There’s just not enough space for people.”

People, however, are not all the same. You’d think that closing Broadway to traffic would be seen as a grand egalitarian gesture. Returning a public amenity like the street to the perambulating masses should be a source of democratic harmony. And yet it’s not. Plans like these never are. Perhaps it’s the sense of a centralized hidden hand at work. Or maybe it’s the fact that the streets are the ultimate shared resource, giving everyone a proprietary feeling about them. But redrawing the map of the city invariably stokes suspicion and resentment, and doing so at its absolute nerve center is being read by some as an act of provocation.

Sadik-Khan has been at her job long enough to know that one does not rearrange traffic in midtown lightly, so she has grounded her Broadway plan on assiduous analysis and computer modeling of traffic flow. She has managed a sophisticated PR campaign that has paid off with support from both the Times and the Daily News, as well as the business-improvement districts.

But even though her models suggest that simplifying the three-way intersections will enhance circulation, she has yet to convince many of the players who use Times Square the most. There are the practical complaints: Small-business owners worry that traffic will clog the side streets, making it harder to handle deliveries and pickups. Cabbies and theater owners are similarly concerned about dropping off ticketholders. Then there are the more abstract objections that have to do with a Transportation commissioner many perceive to be an anti-car radical. “Broadway in theory is a good idea, but unfortunately what’s a good idea for the city is not always a good idea for all the stakeholders,” says John Liu, an ambitious young City Council member from Queens who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee. For people like Liu, the Broadway plan is about something more than several blocks of midtown traffic. It’s a clash of values. “There is a sense of the elite telling the everyday people what’s good for them, and that’s simply not appreciated,” Liu says. “I think it can no longer be ignored, the demographic groups calling for these changes versus the demographic groups that protest.”

[article continues on for six pages]

[Zerton]

I think it's a great idea as long as surrounding streets can handle the extra traffic. I always wondered why anyone would drive through times square anyway. All the cars honking does give it some of its allure though.

[FREKI]

Great idea if they can reroute the traffic and make some space for the taxis to pick up and let off people..

We've had simular ideas about our City Hall Square here where they talked about a car tunnel - maybe that is an option for New York in this case?

[SpongeG]

aren't there a lot of train tunnels under there all ready? wouldn't it be hard to add a car one?

[Matty]

We don't need a car tunnel. We don't need anything extra for cars. Streets are for people, first and foremost. The subway, and the pedestrians who use it, are the lifeblood of this city, not cars and drivers or even taxis.

[SLO]

Awesome, make it a real square...

[mthq]

Originally Posted by FREKI

Great idea if they can reroute the traffic and make some space for the taxis to pick up and let off people..

We've had simular ideas about our City Hall Square here where they talked about a car tunnel - maybe that is an option for New York in this case?

I suppose the ideas in Denmark may be similar after finding this tidbit from the second article I posted:

But Copenhagen, often called one of the world’s best-designed and most livable cities, has had a particular influence over her. The city center features eighteen car-free areas and several pedestrian promenades, all stitched together by an elaborate network of bicycle and pedestrian paths. The city impressed Sadik-Khan enough for her to give its mastermind, the 72-year-old urban planner Jan Gehl, a consulting contract. (She raised funds for his fee privately, through private foundations.) Gehl did not always mesh seamlessly with city bureaucrats, but his influence can already be felt, especially on the Chelsea bike lanes and the Broadway redesign.

[J. Will]

Who gives a shit if the other streets can handle the extra traffic? If you don't want to be stuck in traffic, don't drive.

They're doing something similar in Toronto where the city's most important East-West street is being reduced from two lanes each way to one lanes each way through downtown to make for wider sidewalks. The street is already virtually gridlocked for hours a day, and will no doubt be even worse for commuters after the change. But hey, there's a subway running under the street at headways of 5 minutes or less all day.

Cars should not take priority over pedestrians in downtown areas.

[NYguy]

Thought there was already a thread for this, but...

Originally Posted by mthq

Bloomberg may be well intentioned, but its not a great idea. I cut through that area a lot, and the only this this will do is cause more pedestrian gridlock. This is just an expansion of what the city has already been doing (like in Madison Square) and I don't like what they've aready done with the Broadway plazas south of 42nd.

Besides being tacky, they just don't feel right. If the plazas were raised to sidewalk level, it would be a little different. And public enemy number one to pedestrians, as far as I'm concerned, are those damned bikers who don't believe they have to follow traffic signals. They come barreling through crosswalks against the light, even when it's dark out and you can hardly see them coming. They weave in and out of everything - even on the sidewalks. With the bikers on one side, and traffic on the other, you feel as if you're sitting in the middle of the street.

As far as the new plazas in Times Square go, that will do anything but improve pedestrian circulation. All it gives is more room - and an excuse - for tourists who really don't know any better to stand there and clog it up.

But tonight I realized a bigger problem as I stood in Herald Square. Broadway - a street unique in all of Manhattan - seems to have vanished! Of course I know its still there, but when you look at how this is implemented, it effectively isn't. You don't have to take my word for it, anyone can go out and look at it. And it is ironic that moving half the cars out makes the place look and feel more crowded. What was once a distinctive and open area is now any-other-avenue-Manhattan in appearance. Slowly but surely the uniqueness of the Big Apple erodes - good intentions or not.

Say what you want about cars, and Im no defender of traffic, but there are some things that simply are in the big city. The "crossroads of the world" should at least remain just that.

[philvia]

all i can say is yay

[CGII]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Thought there was already a thread for this, but...



Bloomberg may be well intentioned, but its not a great idea. I cut through that area a lot, and the only this this will do is cause more pedestrian gridlock. This is just an expansion of what the city has already been doing (like in Madison Square) and I don't like what they've aready done with the Broadway plazas south of 42nd.

Besides being tacky, they just don't feel right. If the plazas were raised to sidewalk level, it would be a little different. And public enemy number one to pedestrians, as far as I'm concerned, are those damned bikers who don't believe they have to follow traffic signals. They come barreling through crosswalks against the light, even when it's dark out and you can hardly see them coming. They weave in and out of everything - even on the sidewalks. With the bikers on one side, and traffic on the other, you feel as if you're sitting in the middle of the street.

As far as the new plazas in Times Square go, that will do anything but improve pedestrian circulation. All it gives is more room - and an excuse - for tourists who really don't know any better to stand there and clog it up.

But tonight I realized a bigger problem as I stood in Herald Square. Broadway - a street unique in all of Manhattan - seems to have vanished! Of course I know its still there, but when you look at how this is implemented, it effectively isn't. You don't have to take my word for it, anyone can go out and look at it. And it is ironic that moving half the cars out makes the place look and feel more crowded. What was once a distinctive and open area is now any-other-avenue-Manhattan in appearance. Slowly but surely the uniqueness of the Big Apple erodes - good intentions or not.

Say what you want about cars, and Im no defender of traffic, but there are some things that simply are in the big city. The "crossroads of the world" should at least remain just that.

These are all excellent points and essentially summate my negative opinions on this project. Unfortunately, I won't be back in NY until August, so I can't have a personal review of how it's working out- however:

The greatest problem I have with Midtown is the grid. Yes, the very fabric that defines Manhattan above 14th street, I know, but the grid stands as a testament to the arbitrary; it was envisioned by real estate speculators in order to divvy up the land area in a way more efficient to sell than anything else. The ultimate victim of this deal is the pedestrian, who formed and created the jagged streets of Lower Manhattan, and now is forced to negotiate straight cut streets designed for money and ultimately facilitative of the automobile and the (now defunct) elevated trains. Yes, New York is still, and always will be, a pedestrian city on account of its density, but it's egregiously clear how much more harsh the streetscape of the Commisioner's Plan is compared to the more naturally occuring streets of the Village or Soho or wherever, even if they are more grand and photographically impressive.

My ultimate point is, whether or not the Broadway pedestrian mall works, it is an attempt, at least, at an admirable goal, which is to start to redefine the antihuman streets of the grid into a more coherent pedestrian environment like the streetscapes south of 14th street. I hope to see it in person a few months from now and give a more fair judgement. My most important concern is the choice of Broadway as a vehicle for this statement. One could argue that Broadway is the one gesture of pre-Commisioner Plan Manhattan that permutates the grid and to make it accessible to pedestrian traffic is redundant, however I think the more pressing concern is how to unify such a dense urban environment like Midtown without thorough, invasive techniques where Broadway presents itself as an already materialized passage; one thing that really drives me mad about Midtown is how goddamn long the blocks are, it forces one to navigate in a frustratingly hyper-linear manner.

What I think I'd like to see as this city grows up is a greater attempt by the city to start creating new corridors through existing blocks to start to explore the potential of those spaces; I can imagine endless possibilities for the public's use of the unbuilt space in the middle of most prewar blocks. Maybe they can start to link majour points of interest through new pedestrian corridors that creatively cut through existing buildings without removing them, think kind of like the Chelsea Market, only a network. I think the High Line is an excellent model of this idea, only imagine it at ground level and without the obvious physical cut through the urban landscape (the elevatedness of the High Line in application to 'normal' pedestrian corridors reeks of 1920's futurism). I think the pedestrianized-Broadway is addressing the condition of Midtown as a fragmented neighbourhood layered horizontally as the numbered streets progress up, and even if it is unsuccessful, planners will have at least identified and recognized the problems faced with fixing the grid for the pedestrian.

[malec]

Originally Posted by NYguy

And public enemy number one to pedestrians, as far as I'm concerned, are those damned bikers who don't believe they have to follow traffic signals.

Just curious here, do you mean motorbikes or cyclists? Because if you mean cyclists that's exactly what I do every day.

[llamaorama]

I'm sure this will be a good thing, but I imagine it will seem "weird" at first...the traffic is all part of the ambiance.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by malec

Just curious here, do you mean motorbikes or cyclists? Because if you mean cyclists that's exactly what I do every day.

I'm refering to Manhattan's cyclists from hell...

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by CGII

These are all excellent points and essentially summate my negative opinions on this project. Unfortunately, I won't be back in NY until August, so I can't have a personal review of how it's working out- however:

Note that they haven't said this is permanent. It's an "experiment" that will last towards the end of the year (presumably after election).

But I just don't see this as an improvement...
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/25/nyregion/0525-BROADWAY_9.html

[NYguy]

AMAZING 'FEET' ON BROADWAY
WALKERS RULE AS CAR BAN BEGINS

By AMBER SUTHERLAND, REUVEN FENTON and ALEX GINSBERG
May 25, 2009


Broadway became the Great Walk Way yesterday -- the first day of the ambitious vehicle ban that transportation officials say will actually improve traffic flow.

The experiment -- set to last at least until the end of the year -- calls for the Great White Way to be off-limits to motor traffic where it runs through Herald and Times squares.

Pedestrians, of course, applauded the idea.

"I think this is great," said college student Irene Rekhviashvili, 21, of Forest Hills, Queens.

"It'll encourage people to drive less and walk around more. It raises awareness about alternate transportation and cleaner air. I think New Yorkers can adjust to anything.

"It's a little chaotic right now, but a place like this, in the middle of Manhattan, will be very unique."

Not everyone agreed.

"This is crazy," fumed cabby Karamjit Singh, 29, of Richmond Hill, Queens, as he motored past Times Square's TKTS theater-ticket booth on Seventh Avenue.

"They have to reopen the road. Traffic is going to be so bad now. I work weekdays during rush hour. I won't get as many fares on Broadway. People will have a very tough time."

Suddenly deprived of one of the streets that give the Crossroads of the World its name, motorists who normally drive through Times Square down Broadway were forced onto Seventh Avenue.

Traffic seemed to be moving well -- the cross streets remained opened -- but many irate motorists said a Sunday afternoon in the middle of a three-day weekend was hardly a fair test.

And despite the extra space for foot traffic, even pedestrians predicted car chaos come tomorrow morning. "I can't imagine what this is going to do to traffic," said Rebecca Pratico, an office manager from Astoria, Queens.

"It's already terrible. Now that there are fewer lanes, it's going to be even more awful. It's not good to make a difficult city to live in more difficult."

Eight blocks south at Herald Square, where Macy's-bound shoppers often overflow sidewalks, and traffic to and from Penn Station brings the intersection to a halt, the first day of the plan brought no obvious traffic chaos.

But, like their counterparts at Times Square, many of those surveyed thought city transportation officials ought to have their heads examined.

"It seems like more congestion will be around the surrounding streets," said Carolin Gabriel, 26, a Park Slope, Brooklyn, teacher, who was doing some shopping. "You're not going to cut back on cars. Cars are still going to need a road to go on."

Transportation officials say the "Green Lights for Midtown" plan will actually improve traffic, because Broadway -- which slices on a diagonal across Manhattan's rectangular grid -- creates inconvenient intersections that gum up the flow.

"This is just Act One of a different kind of opening on Broadway," said Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

"It's an important first step to ease traffic and sidewalk congestion and create safe, attractive spaces that are good for business. But it's a work in progress, and we'll be monitoring the area closely during the initial adjustment period."

Officials will measure traffic flow between now and the end of the year, comparing it to the pre-change numbers.

The closures yesterday kicked in at 2 p.m. and affected Broadway between 33rd and 35th streets, and between 42nd and 45th streets. The two-block stretch between 45th and 47th, which is part of the plan as well, wasn't slated to be closed until after 8 p.m., giving a street fair on Seventh Avenue time to wind down.

The plan calls for landscaping and seating in the closed areas, in addition to the widening of the sidewalks, a much-needed fix at Times Square, where pedestrian areas are so packed that theatergoers often walk in the street.

But despite city officials' rosy predictions -- including a 66 percent increase in total green-light time for the streets and avenues in the affected area -- many folks were skeptical.

"Traffic isn't moving slowly today, but it's a holiday weekend," said David Wilkenfeld, 51, of TriBeCa.

[FREKI]

Originally Posted by Matty

We don't need a car tunnel. We don't need anything extra for cars. Streets are for people, first and foremost. The subway, and the pedestrians who use it, are the lifeblood of this city, not cars and drivers or even taxis.

You need to strike a balance between the cars and the pedestrians - if you ban cars completely in the area many businesses will be forced to move elsewhere and the surrounding area will suffer gridlock posible putting the entire midtown to a halt..

When it comes to traffic things are very rarely as simple as they may seem and the most used roads today are so for natural reasons so you need alternatives or you'll face chaos..

[Matty]

Right, and my argument would be we don't have the proper balance -- it's far too tilted towards cars. A place like Times Square, if it needs anything, it's more space for pedestrians, not cars. Taking away some car lanes in favor of pedestrians, and forcing *some cars out and giving more space to pedestrians is striking a better balance. You're talking about a very dense place, filled with commuters who come via train, a place that happens to sit on a station carrying what, 11 subway lines? To me, this signifies a clear priority for pedestrians. It's less difficult for a car to find an alternative in this situation than a pedestrian. A traffic lane sacrificed for pedestrian space, in this area at least, seems like it would do more good than harm. I don't see this causing major traffic issues once people find the work around that works in their circumstance.

Originally Posted by CGII

The greatest problem I have with Midtown is the grid. Yes, the very fabric that defines Manhattan above 14th street, I know, but... The ultimate victim of this deal is the pedestrian, who formed and created the jagged streets of Lower Manhattan, and now is forced to negotiate straight cut streets... Yes, New York is still, and always will be, a pedestrian city on account of its density, but it's egregiously clear how much more harsh the streetscape of the Commisioner's Plan is compared to the more naturally occuring streets of the Village or Soho or wherever, even if...

I really agree with your post. I understand the role of cars in a city, but on a whole it's gone too far. New York in many instances is a pedestrian city not because we've taken care to see that the city accomodates them, but rather density in many cases forces it. The grid above 14th street can be overbearing at times. I work just below Union Square and make the switch between the pedestrianized feel of the central village/NYU area to the Flatiron/Midtown South Area almost everyday. It's remarkable how harsh it can feel in comparison. In fact, I remember well the junction of Broadway by Madison Square before the change, and I can really say that this instance is a success. Hasn't seemed to do anything to put a jinx in traffic being able to move through, but it created a space people really seem to enjoy. It took a harsh, difficult crossing and turned it into better utilized pedestrian streetspace. Something more permanent and nicer looking than painted-on sand might be nice, but it works well enough to redefine the space.

Have you ever seen the movie "The Cruise"? As an "out of towner" going to school here, and with your perspective, I think you'd really like that film. I loved it myself. The grid can mess up your cruise.

[Dac150]

I don't know about this, and haven't since they first announced these plans. I was in Times Square last Thursday, so I essentially saw it for what it was for potentially the last time before they started with this. Hopefully if it stays it'll work out and be a benefit, but otherwise if it doesn't they need to act and bring things back to normal.

To me the crossroads were a key feature to Times Square. Hopefully they didn't ruin the effect of the area. But I'll keep an open mind and give it a chance. I see where they're coming from with the idea and if it works I'm sure it'll eventually become natural.