Car Ban Hits Times Square, Herald Square Tomorrow

This is so exciting. When can we expect this on other streets? How about Flatbush Avenue?

I'm excited. I hope they extend it to Central Park. I'm a little worried, however, about the public reaction the first time a crazy cabby or elderly heart attack victim careens into one of these pedestrian areas...because it's only a matter of time before it happens.

That's a risk most anywhere there is a sidewalk or crosswalk with a number of pedestrians. With bollards protecting the Broadway space and a more regularized traffic pattern along the street grid, it is if anything safer for pedestrians.

Quite right. Who's to say the same thing couldn't happen on a packed Times Square sidewalk on any given day? That we haven't seen carnage there on a regular basis indicates that it's an insignificant risk.

Broadway's direction and orientation are historic, handed down to us by the Indians who used it as their primary route for over a thousand years. Now we got this elitist, upper-crust, hippy DOT commissioner destroying our history and traditions.

I wonder if she'll ride her chauffeured-driven limousine that you and I pay for down the thoroughfare on a test run.

Before her sycophants here rabidly respond, please address the chauffeured-limo issue!

(You know, the same limo she got pulled over in on the NYS Thruway for speeding at around 90 mph using her lights and sirens. Just like in Orwell's Animal Farm, where the Head Pig drives around in a limo, and the sycophants and toadies all applaud the Great Leader.)

Welcome to the People's Republic of SadikKhanistan. Toadies, get on your knees and hail the Great Leader, Comrade Janette.

Rhonda718, Spirit76, Starry Gordon: Thanks for the replies to my comment.

Now, when are you going to address the fact that Sadik-Khan tells you to ride a bike, take a train, walk - while she racks up speeding tickets in her chauffeured limo that taxpayers pay for?

Your silence is more deafening than her hypocrisy. Are you really that obsequious or have I boxed you into a corner?

Awaiting your reply,

TheFacts

Awaiting your reply,

TheFacts

you're hilarious. Look at you go. Do you have a totally rad blog where you bitch about traffic changes that we can check out? I'd totally follow that shit.

Not a very successful attempt at ducking the question.

Why am I not surprised?

Apparently, just like in Animal Farm, your Head Pig, JSK, being driven around in her limo gets accolades from her lackies and toadies in the barnyard like you who must walk. \

Ever read the book? You should.

Maybe from now on, we'll just call you "muddlethefacts."

You claim that she got caught once and all of a sudden, it becomes, "racks up speeding tickets." You say it was on the Thruway then say she's hypocritical for not walking, biking or taking a train. How is one supposed to do any of that on the Thruway? Seems quite illegal to me. The only person boxed in is you, in the tiny space of your mind. Keep yourself planted in front of the computer while the rest of us enjoy healthy activities like walking, jogging and riding that two-wheeled contraption that you admit does nothing but collect dust and cobwebs in your home. The rest of the world will move forward with more Summer Streets, more Williamsburg Walks, more bike lanes. "thefacts" will raise his voice to the heavens to wail, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me???"

Ta ta. I'm off to Broadway to enjoy a good, long walk up to Central Park. Pity you can't enjoy being outside without your two tons of steel, glass and rubber protecting you.

My Lord, you are dense.

One more time: Let her take mass transit to Albany, like she tells me and her toadies like you to do!

[Ronald Reagan] There you go again. [/Ronald Reagan].

How do you know she doesn't? Again, instead of ignoring the challenge, please show how being ticketed once means she uses a car with driver every time she goes to Albany and how that one ticket equates to "racking them up." You accuse others of not responding to your points, but when challenged on your own lies and exaggerations, you suddenly act like you didn't see the question. Also, please point out how she's in a "limousine." Just because she's in a car with a driver? I guess that means everybody who takes a taxi is in a limousine. Hey cabbie, where's my wet bar?

I just had a great day walking around on Broadway, Central Park and the Hudson River Park. You should try it sometime. But I suppose that would be against your auto-centric religion.

"How do you know she doesn't?" = Sophism at its basest.

Yes, the Indians always got on Broadway and headed downtown. When they got to Battery Park, not having any way of going back, they fell in the water and drowned. After awhile there were no Indians left, which is why you don't see them any more. If only they had had bicycles! Then they could have taken the West Side or East Side bike paths uptown, and instead of drowning, broken their necks falling over strollers, dog-walkers, and jogging bond salesmen.

And now we're reverting part of Broadway back to how it was used for thousands of years: a historic walking trail.

Seriously, what is it about conservatives who cling to tradition (with tradition being a narrowly defined recent defintion of something) while ignoring anything before or after that?

You should have seen some people commenting on this topic claiming that traffic may be a problem, but it's what gives NYC its "unique flavor" and we should do everything we can to keep that.

But you know, they're right. We should go back to the way things used to be. Everybody get out of the city. We're turning it back into woodlands. Right after we destroy most of the shoreline, which is mostly landfill, including all the land under Battery Park and Battery Park City.

See what happens when Mayor Mike doesn't get his way? Good idea or not, why do I feel like this is punishment for defeating his congestion pricing plan?

Actually, more of a consolation prize after having our plan to control our streets defeated by some upstate hicks.

Hopefully, someday we'll be able to make necessary changes in the city without having to ask "mother may I?" from Albany. Till then, getting a few blocks of Broadway back will have to suffice.

It has only congested the other streets and cause more of a public safety issue for drivers and pedestrians.

"And now Bloomberg wants to turn NY into Amsterdam."

Sounds good to me then we can get legally high and ride bikes everywhere

Don't forget legalized prostitution!

Seriously, I think this is a great idea on paper and am hopeful it works.

Another salvo in Bloomberg's war on cars. What is it about mayors in NYC. Giuliani tried to ban jaywalking at the end of his term. How'd that go? And now Bloomberg wants to turn NY into Amsterdam. Only in the bizarro world of city government does banning cars=better traffic. Do they get high before they publish this kind of rubbish?

No, but obviously you got high before you typed your pile of rubbish.

Anything that reduces vehicular traffic and its accompanying accidents, visiting drunks and pollution is ok with me. Manhattan has an excellent public transportation system and it serves us very well.

I sincerely hope he closed a few more firehouses and hospitals so that this plan could come to fruition. If there happens to be an emergency in this area, are there plans for emergency vehicles to drive over the walkways and tables to respond?

Hmm. What happens if there happens to be an emergency on any regular block not split up by Broadway? Oh, yeah. They use the surrounding streets and avenues.

Yeah those avenues that will clogged up by the new traffic patterns!!! Way to put on your thinking cap dumbass! Happy Memorial Day!

You make no sense. Not that you ever do. Maybe we should split up every block in Manhattan, just so we can get more space for emergency vehicles. Anybody who's ever walked in Times Square knows it's a nightmare for pedestrians and drivers alike with that tangle of traffic signals. But what the hey, since when have you ever let logic stop you? Your posting history is a morass of obscenities and tirades with nary a kind word for anybody or anything. Nothing but a very angry, little person, taking your frustrations out on a world that you feel doesn't listen to you.

Remember when you wrote, "I hate bullies. You don't say? take a page from your own book and stop acting like one when someone says something that you disagree with." Something tells me you've never looked in a mirror. Then again, if I were you, I probably wouldn't want to look in a mirror, either.

Hahha read over your own comments one day-you are know it all who knows absolutely nothing. You go out of your way to attack others, yet I am a bully?Again Happy Memorial Day. Remember all of the brave men and women who died defending your freedom.

One thing I always noticed back in school was that it was always the dumber kids who called others names like "dumbass" or especially "know-it-all." After all, they lacked the cogent points and vocabulary to win arguments, so they had little recourse. History repeats itself.

looks like NYCity is slowly being turned into an outdoor mall. what next? cute little vendor stands in the center of Broadway instead of cars.

Or better yet, ugly little carts that spew fumes, make incessant noise and consume fuel bought from Saudi terrorists.

Oh wait, that's what's there now.

Good Riddance.

don't fall for the reviews during the first couple of news cycles; scheduling the launch during the holiday weekend is typical bloomberg. this is still a horrible idea.

like it Alot! fuck you all fake New yorkerz

If somebody were to propose a new street that sliced diagonally through Manhattan's mostly orderly street grid, people would ask if you're out of your mind and it would never make it through the approval process.

Bingo. You'd think removing a street that cuts across at weird angles and creates extra intersections and fragmentary blocks would be a no brainer.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works out. Honestly, I don't see how things could get worse.

no. it's a great idea.