City Traffic Bound to Be a Mess This Week

City authorities are basically advising New Yorkers to stay off the road in Manhattan this week with the UN General Assemblies bringing leaders from around the globe into town. With President Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expected tomorrow, large portions of of 42nd Street, 57th Street and Second Avenue will shut down to create an emergency vehicle lane. In addition, 49th and 50th Streets between Park and Lexington Avenues are already closed through midnight Thursday. Officials also said to generally avoid the east side and use mass transit in order to avoid the gridlock that will inevitably come from all of the week's motorcades and demonstrations.

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By Billy Parker in News on September 21, 2008 4:58 PM

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thelexiphane

I talked to a traffic agent in charge of a don't-block-the-box sweep at 36th and Lexington last week. About a dozen officers were pulling cars over left and right and issuing tickets. I asked her how it was going and she characterized NYC drivers as "blind and/or illiterate idiots."

Gesturing towards her highly visible uniformed officers and multiple NYPD Traffic cars, she said that they would be yelling "Don't block the box; we're ticketing!" What would people do? Drive into the intersection and get stuck there--blocking the box.

I doubt we'll ever cure stupidity in this city, but at last we're making some cash off it.