Tourists Now Have Their Own Sidewalk Lane

Are you all retarded? This was a prank by a NY-based improv group. It stayed there a few days before NYDOT removed it...

Link: http://improveverywhere.com/2010/06/08/the-tourist-lane/

"DUH GUISE I HAVE A LITTLE MORE KNOWLEDGE ABOTU SOME FRIVOLOUS SHIT, SO CLEARLY IM MORE "IN THE KNOW" AND THAT MEANS EVERYONE ELSE IS RETARDED CUZ YOU DON'T KNOW 'BOUT SOME FRIVOLOUS SHIT LIKE I DO"

bitches don't know about my frivolity

It's funny -- so many of you New Yorkers think that you walk fast and stride purposely. Yet, when I am in the "untouristy" parts of town, I find myself struggling to get where I'm going because so damn many of you actually stumble around like retarded zombies instead of walking like normal people.

gotta say, dogbert is pretty right. i wanted to fucking kill this group of chinese women and their male friend. not only did they just stop to bullshit (on 36th and 8th.. nothing tourist about it) but when he said his goodbye to her and left, the fucking woman 1.) cut me off to get back into her group 2.) decided to just stand there.

dont fucking cut people off and then walk slower. dont walk out of stores into people and walk slow. don't be a fucking moron, and use your head. does it happen? rarely.

Let's meet and talk about it, Pal.

Sorry, but fat American's who have stuffed themselves with greed and the fast food should diet so that there is more space on the sidewalk. Ooh wait New Yorkers aren't fat I forgot they're stressed and snort enormous amounts of coke!

Sorry for the generalization, but think about it, it's pure arrogance.

If you don't want to rush and bump into people every day you should live on a farm or a small town.

Love to all and take life easy! Stress is the number one cause of heart failure!

The grocer's apostrophe is quite poignant when used in "fat American's."

brilliant.

We are all tourists.

well done! about time someone did this

I just walk down canal street with both fists straight out

But for finance, celebrity culture and tourism, this city would be another Philadelphia -- if even that. Fake-tough New Yorkers need to get over themselves.

YAY! Now us tourists can pretend to be real NEW YORKERS! First thing I will do is get my Orange-bag-carrying Grandma Jenny to take a photo of me standing in the New Yorkers lane. Maybe I'll pose like a meth junkie, it will be so STREET!

What a great memento! Thanks, side walk painter guy!

Tourists won't notice this. We will be too busy looking at the sites. Only NY'ers walk around their city looking at the sidewalk, too afraid to look anyone else in the eye!

i look at the sidewalk because there's typically vomit and gum and dogshit, and/or random food parts, and/or garbage on it, and i'm not into stepping into any of that. it's got nothing to do with your eyes, though i'm sure your eyes are fucking fantastic and looking at strangers right in the eyes is just amazing beyond belief.

Man, this Banksy stuff is getting ridiculous.

+1

There already is a "stroller lane". It's called the street.

Great concept but NYers don't like to follow rules here's a few blatant and unspoken rules that the majority of us don't like to really follow:

-Passengers moving into the middle of the subway car

-Moving aside to let passengers off the subway first

-Driving on Bus Lanes

-J WALKING

-Cyclist not following traffic rules

I guess before we complain about tourist why don't we check ourselves first...

I'll add:

-Wandering down the sidewalk looking at your phone

-Stopping at the entrance to the subway stairs to finish a phone call or email

-Walking three or four across on the sidewalk and not making room for others going the opposite direction

-Not walking single file up and down narrow subway stairs so as to allow two way flow of traffic (example: any 1-2-3 station on the UWS). This goes with the "stay to the right" concept mentioned above.

tourists would have to be looking forward or down to see this... every tourist i see is looking UP!

If American tourists can be mocked by the Europeans (The Ugly American = fat, Hawaiian shirt, shorts, camera, loud, brash, arrogant), so too can we mock The Ugly Tourists.

Btw, I'm a native. Be careful when you generalize.

No tourist has ever put a dime in my pocket. Do you work in the tourist industry?

Furthermore, when I travel, I try to learn the mores and customs and language, and try to be respectful. What's wrong with these Ugly Tourists?

Good point, last time I checked, I have to work for my $ and I would be getting the same pay whether tourists

were here or not, as well as every other NYer I know.

I had to say that since "Steven" says NYC can't function or exist without tourists.

I hate mediawashed parrots!

Its called the Symbolic Economy. Read a history or an urban sociology book. We are living in an economy based on cultural production and consumption.

The industrial economy of NYC has been crippled since labor markets became deregulated and jobs went overseas.

I get frustrated at tourists, I yell at them when the goons take up the whole sidewalk, i laugh at the dumb pictures they take, but that doesn't mean they don't play their part in the economics of the city.

offensive provincialism is so hot right now

As if this would ever work. New Yorkers would never walk only on a certain portion of a sidewalk. They would instead weave in and out of lanes as we do on the highway. We already do this on mixed sidewalks. Whatever. It was a good joke though. I love dissing tourists.

The hatred of tourists on this blog and other blogs is astonishing. I just don't get it? Tourists have never bothered me and living here what do you expect?

The ironic part is most of these people complaining are probably transplants.

It is the problem of not being able to get out of your building because there are 10 people standing in front of the door taking pictures of the buildings. I have more than once had to bang on my own door just to get out on a Saturday without hitting someone!!!

It is like walking through the farmers mkt, what is with all the people with carts, bikes and strollers... There are enough people w/o bringing all your s#it in. sorry,

Considering the Brooklyn Bridge has the whole walk/bike symbols painted all the way across, and the stupid people still get in the bike lane side anyway - this is worthless and a waste of perfectly good spray paint that could be used to destroy more of Banksy's work.

Most of the bike/pedestrian symbols have completely worn away as has the center line on much of the bridge.

As though most of the losers who live in NY need to get nowhere faster. Stop pretending you are in a rush. You aren't that smart, important or informed.

Can we do the same thing in subway stations? I nearly took out a group of three tourist this morning who were so busy ready their map on the staircase down to the N/R at 59th Street that they were holding up traffic.

Same station - I'll look for you! The grey guy with a head, got it.

I don't think the tourists will pay attention. they would be too busy snapping pictures and thinking the whole sidewalk belongs to them cause human beings are just egocentric in that way. heehee.

Half the comments are coming from transplants who live in Brooklyn. Go back from where you came, and come back as a tourist and spend some cash.

You should all get over yourselves and offer to take their pictures when they visit; without them this city would really be in the shit.

yes, because without them, all the 5 dollar NYC t-shirt shops will close, and god knows, THAT drives our economy.

well, that and the jewelry/perfume/cellphone shops on 32nd street.

Hey, JSK of DOT!

Whaddaya waiting for? The cyclists got their lanes. We pedestrians need ours.

Praise Jesus

thank you, thank you, you are far too kind

They need something like that on Canal Street that reads: OLD CHINESE LADIES WITH ORANGE PLASTIC BAGS and EVERYBODY ELSE. That would speed traffic on those sidewalks up like that!

and don't forget about the white women with the big ass black plastic bags with you know what fake LV bags inside

It is my experience as a native New Yorker that the Ugly European tourists are far more egregious in their manners, language, and taste than any American traveling overseas. And that goes double for the obnoxious Japanese tourists.

Not only are they snobby, miserly little twats who don't know how to tip properly, walk with any pace, or read a freaking map, but they are the most culturally ignorant people I have ever had the misfortune of having to deal with. On what planet do these morons think it's perfectly okay to casually insult the host city or its people when you're a visitor?

To these foreign pollutants I often give them my very best New Yorker "fuck outta here" attitude so that they can brag to their tosser friends that they once experienced a real, nasty, fire-breathing New Yorker. Yes, we do exist. We exist to make useless Eurotrash shoppers (because we all know they're here to just buy clothes, not to actually experience the city, or its awesome food, music, or culture) miserable and to remind them that they are the worse than crust at the bottom of a pisspot

Right, because women of color never buy the fake handbags on Canal Street.

Bahh. You always get the praise. What do I get?

Oh but its not like I did much anyway. Just CREATED THE UNIVERSE & all. No biggie.

WTF. Do-Over

You want a do-over on your comment, or on the whole "universe" thing?

yes please!

awesome

Do we have any extra Presidential Medals of Freedom? This person deserves one.

Good idea.

Tourists/Strollers/Texters should be on the right though.

You'd think so, as this is consistent with American traffic flows, but when are tourists ever on the right? They can't gaze up at the buildings when they're right at the foundation. Plus, then they'd be restricted doing the "Tourist 360" by the building. Not much is better when you're trying to go somewhere than when someone with a fully unfolded map performs the Tourist 360, head to the sky.

Exactly. Slower moving/stopped traffic to the right, faster moving/passing traffic to the left (four lanes total for different directions of travel). The only problem with that is people who are here from England/Australia/India who don't know which side is the correct side to drive/walk.

Like tourists can read.

brilliant!

fuckin A! Need to do this on ALL streets!