I've lived in Chelsea for 30 years and can vouch that the Ninth Avenue lane reduction is not an improvement. I don't own a car or a bike and walk as much as possible. Removing a lane has caused nearly constant traffic jams, with blaring horns throughout the night. Nor do I wish to, or intend to move to Portland or some other bucolic setting. As a 5th generation NYer I'll stay right here. It will take more than the likes of a clueless Janette Sakik-Kahn to drive me away from the city I love.

If over a hundred non-motorists are killed a year by motorists, and none by cyclists, who's doing the terrorizing?

Good idea, lousy name.

And BTW, legally terrorizing pedestrians will never work. It takes all the fun out of it.

Before they were paved, streets were cobblestoned to facilitate the iron cart wheels drawn by horses.


Check out the many cobblestoned streets in the older parts of the city.


Eg, Stone Street in lower Manhattan was the first or second Dutch street to paved, pre-1664.


Who claims there were bikes in 1664?

Cobblestones are not the same as paved streets. They're for completely different purposes. Cobblestones and Belgian blocks are to prevent rutting from repeated traffic compared to dirt roads. Smoothly paved streets were introduced for bicycles, like it or not, to give greater speed, safety and comfort. In the 1890s, Americans loved bicycling with a passion not seen since, a passion displaced by automobiles which appealed to their laziness. That was when macadam and paved roads became common, pushed by the League of American Wheelmen (now League of American Bicyclists). Do try to do some research before coming up with such asinine statements, Mr. "thefacts."

I too am warming up to Janette Sadik-Khan. I love how she can get all this finalized under the radar of nay-sayers.

BTW: ITA = I totally agree :-)

There aren't *that* many tourists in that area. It's a boring stretch of office buildings, for Chrissakes. In fact, when I worked at 1375 Broadway (at 37th), the area was markedly bereft of tourists despite being between Times Square and Herald Square. I am sure there must be tourists walking between the two, but not so many that it's teeming with them.

#33

Exactly. Hundreds of tourists gonna be all up in the bike lane since the rest of the space created will be 'teeming with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters.'

There will be bike/pedestrian/car/truck/flower filled planter collisions left, right and centre.

Too narrow.

I just rode down part of this new bike lane this morning (they were putting the finishing touches on the lane paintings.) It's a great idea, however they should not have put the bike lane next to the curb. People and bikes are definately going to collide as a result of this.

ottoemezzo:

is copenhagen "a mall"? making streets better for pedestrians and cyclists does not equal gentrification.

SP, that's for the renovation of the 96th street subway station, which requires widening the median for a new building in the center of Broadway. Unfortunately, instead of taking space away from cars in order to make room for the median they chose to narrow the sidewalks by half in order to preserve the traffic lanes. So the thousands of people who walk by there every hour have to be crammed onto narrow sidewalks while the cars get to keep their space.

A bunch of you need to stay on streetsblog.

Please.

Does anyone know what the crazy construction around 96th street and B'way is all about? They have narrowed the sidewalks there and cut strange angles into them. Is this part of a greater master plan to shut down B'way entirely to car traffic and turn it into a bus only artery for the city?

This is good. The bike lane is separated from the street to discourage drivers from using it and the reference to making Manhattan a mall is a complete non sequitur. I remember an interview with Gehl in NY Mag (I think) months ago in which he laid out this plan.

Before they were paved, streets were cobblestoned to facilitate the iron cart wheels drawn by horses.

Check out the many cobblestoned streets in the older parts of the city.

Eg, Stone Street in lower Manhattan was the first or second Dutch street to paved, pre-1664.

Who claims there were bikes in 1664?

I think it's a good idea and disagree with bxbrian about the traffic. Its not out of hand, or at least, I think it's no worse and probably better than other avenues in the city now that the space is largely "claimed" away from the cars.

Actually, it'll get better when it's done because the left turn only lanes are blocked for most of the area now. Once those open up, traffic will be eased a bit.

"How about deliveries?"

While not all the lines have been fully drawn in, I believe they are creating spaces like the one on Broadway between 42 and 43rd for deliveries.

Janette Sadik-Khan rocks! What a change from her predecessor.

And as usual, "thefacts" has nothing of the sort. Roads were originally paved for bicycles in the 1890s, back when bikes were called "boneshakers." Horses never needed paved roads and in fact do better on dirt because their hooves like soft surfaces. It wasn't until cars became affordable consumer items a couple of decades later that they took over paved roads.

Corey Baker is an idiot and stick to fashion. He probably doesn't even know what carbon monoxide is.

Although Bloomberg's bravado for progress and development has spawned some questionable decisions, the DOT is certainly making some amazing strides during his time in office.

This plan has been in the works for years and years and I'm glad it's finally coming to fruition. NY needs this kind of public space and Times Square is the perfect place for it. Many great European cities have plaza's and piazza's but NY is sadly lacking in them.

It boggles my mind why anyone would be opposed to this. This plan is nothing like a mall, unles you mean a mall like Washington D.C. With less cars and more room for pedestrians I would think there is less chance of accidents.

This is cool. And it ain't no mall. Turning it into a mall would mean creating a 120-acre parking lot and filling the middle of it with Radio Shacks and Bennigans. This is giving space back to the people.

I've ridden down Broadway in that neighborhood many times... it seems to me that most of the cars turn onto 7th Avenue out of Times Square rather than continuing down Broadway.

However, any actions taken to protect cyclists and pedestrians from the cars that do choose Broadway to speed down to Herald Square are okay in my book.