I used to be an oblivious pedestrian. When the light turned green and the little man turned white I actually used to step off the curb and try to cross the street!

Now, though, I look both ways so that bicyclists can proceed against the light and against traffic, and I wait for them to pass. I'm oblivious no longer.

www.forgotten-ny.com

I can't wait to get my hovercraft out of the shop...

bloomberg admin is just getting all you hipsters to vote for him.

won't have have to change the city charter again?

You can no longer take Broadway south anymore past 14th Street. At 17th street Broadway somehow goes to the east side and west side of union square park, but you can't get to the east side of the park in your car from being on broadway, and once you get to 14 street, you have to make a right, and broadway continues about 100 feet to your left.

Yes Petey, to continue to Broadway you must turn left at 23rd, 22nd, 20th, or 18th St to go to the east side, and take Park Ave So to continue to downtown.

Oh the HORROR!

Funny Kevd.

If you are passing through it's no big deal. If you have truck deliveries in the local neighborhood, it is a Major inconvenience that is costly in terms of time and needless driving. Unnecessary truck travel in the city is an inconvenience and nuisance to everyone, not just the driver.

trucks heading downtown would have just been on broaday till 17th.

Now they'll turn earlier - on one of the 4 streets you mentioned. No big deal there. Some where probably already doing this because of the cluster-fuck that was 17th st.

Truck traffic isn't a nuisance. its what delivers our food. and other necessities. car traffic is a nuisance.

reduce that, and you've got no problems at all.

broadWay.

were not where.

etc....

damn laptop keyboards and poor typing skills.

I think the Bloomberg Administration, as well as the leadership of Sadik-Khan, will be remembered for decades to come when it comes to reclaiming streets for alternative transportation (bikes and peds) and open-space. Robert Moses let some infrastructure deteriorate to the benefit of cars half a century back, and now the city is reverting back to the ideas of the pre-Moses times. I think this is very exciting.

On the flipside - as with cars - the more room you make, the more pedestrians will fill it and then some. The city needs to start ticketing pedestrians for jay-walking and using bike lanes as their own personal express sidewalks (which is my fear with this new project). You want bikers to follow the rules? You have to give us a chance and get out of the road first. If you want to argue this check out a piece I did on this below and see for your own eyes. No wonder us bikers have a chip on our shoulders...

http://theguardrailblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/cyclists-nightmare-riding-up-8th-ave.html

Hairy for pedestrians? The pedestrians had the walk signal when the traffic had the red light. The pedestrians choose to cross regardless of what the light is or what traffic may be coming at them. This closure has negatively impacted local truck deliveries in the union square area, as all traffic south of 18th street must now go WEST to 6th Ave (no trucks on 5th Ave)and back up to 23rd St to get back around to the east side. The city is making it very difficult to make truck deliveries in Manhattan with the new pedestrian malls and turn restrictions popping up (34th St, 23rd St, 14th St.) This equates to extra driving for trucks as they have to traverse long round about routes to get around the new restrictions, causing unnecessary traffic (and exhaust).

Good thing the city is experimenting with several trucking companies to increase overnight deliveries. As it turned out, the trucking companies actually saved money, despite having to pay drivers more, because they could make way more deliveries because there was less traffic.

The same will be true during the day once we finally get congestion pricing going.

There is less traffic because not many companies are doing it yet. If it were to become more popular, traffic would increase and we would have similar parking and traffic issues. Part of the profitability claim was due to less parking tickets. That is because traffic enforcement agents do not work at night, but if overnight delivery traffic were to increase to significant levels, you can bet the city will sent out their revenue agents in full force.

The pedestrian plazas and turn restrictions I referred to are in effect 24 hrs a day, they create the same needless driving overnight when there is little traffic as they do during the day. The irony is that the new turning restrictions and street closures are on the truck routes! If the city wanted to encourage overnight deliveries they would make it easier to get around at night, not harder.

The city is removing parking all the time, forcing even more illegal parking so they can gouge companies with parking tickets. In some areas there are simply no places for trucks to park legally. Fed Ex alone paid $10.7 MILLION in fiscal year 07-08. Guess who pays for that? We all do!

Congestion pricing is a joke as far as reducing traffic, it would simply be another toll/tax, no different than what people already pay to commute between NY and NJ or the Bronx and Queens. Congestion pricing was just a proposed revenue generator disguised as a traffic control initiative.

They should totally turn more free,and underpriced curbside parking spots into higher turner-over loading zones and market rate spots. What does a lot cost? Charge that much.

That would make it much easier for those deliveries.

Though, you have a point about the city ticketing for revenue.

Everywhere else that congestion pricing has been tried its hasn't been a joke at reducing traffic. Its been pretty damn effective. And yes, it would cost the people who benefit money. Namely, the people driving in who could do so more easily.

And, doesn't the city need money.

This is fantastic. Bloomberg and Janette Sadik-Khan deserve great praise, especially for pushing back on the cranky car driver lobby (mostly suburbanites anyway). What kind of New York do you want? A city designed around its people or designed arounds its cars?

Car drivers already get subsidized and supported to a massive degree in this city: the costs of their activity (dealing with noise, pollution, etc.) are substantially borne by others, mostly by the people who actually live here. No more free rides for them -- we need to bring back a better balance in this city.

This trend needs to continue.

No, this is wrong. The vehicles hitting the tolls constantly subsidize the trains, which run at a severe loss otherwize. You can't beat the math on this one. People having to trudge over the Whitestone, Verazzano, Throgs Neck, Triboro, HH et al are what keep the train fares artificially low, so you shouldn't hate every car driver out there.

But what about every other street and highway in New York? The ones that don't have tolls?

What pays for their construction and upkeep?

Don't say gas tax, because that isn't true. That only covers a small percentage. Its every other tax that goes into local and state coffers. If I'm not driving a car I pay just as much in those taxes as someone who drives 20,000 miles a year. Therefore, I'm subsidizing those drivers.

The math is really simple.

Though you are right that users of a small set of specific MTA bridges do subsidize transit. Don't get me started on how f-ed up bridge pricing is in NYC. The pricing is all about charging the most where there are no other options (White Stone, Throgs Neck, Vz.) and keeping it free where there are tons of other options (East river bridges). Ass backwards - and a huge generator of unnecessary traffic.

Frankly, I think tolls are stupid and inefficient. Just raise the gas tax about $.50/gallon and you wouldn't need any tolls anywhere.

And somewhere in Lower Manhattan, "thefacts" starts loading his rifle under the watchful eye of his Lee Harvey Oswald poster, all the while sitting next to slashed photos of Janette Sadik-Khan with "diktator" scrawled on them.

If you don't jay walk BLINDLY, every goddamn street is safe.

You DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO JAY WALK.

Drivers get infractions and tickets for violating traffic rules, but pedestrians who willingly put themselves in harms way and jaywalk look shocked when you damn near run them over.

Do you have any idea what the pedestrian plazas that were already constructed have done to the traffic in Midtown? It's damn near impossible to go crosstown now, it was time consuming before, but now just forget about it. I'm fine with bike-lanes, I don't want bicyclists on the road or on the sidewalk. I think it's a great idea. But if you jaywalk like a goddamn blind idiot chatting on your phone... you shouldn't be surprised when a car hits you.