It was “one of (the) most radical experiments in a generation,” watched both locally and globally – and now it’s permanent.
New York’s ambitious experiment that closed parts of Broadway to vehicles last spring will become permanent, city officials said on Thursday, even though it fell short of achieving its chief objective: improving traffic flow.
Well, actually it did that too: “Traffic along Seventh Avenue, for example, 
moved 4 percent faster, but the city had hoped for a gain of up to 17 percent.”
That’s four percent, folks, in one of the densest cities in the world. Problem is, the City promised more, probably to justify the experiment in the first place.
The mayor’s office promised “reduced travel times throughout Midtown,” including an improvement of up to 37 percent along Avenue of the Americas. Travel times along that avenue improved by 15 percent, according to the city’s data.
In another sign of the times (sorry), the City tapped a more intriguing source of data – from GPS devices in yellow cabs. “Those numbers encompassed 1.1 million Midtown taxi trips taken between Fifth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown. Of those trips, northbound travel times improved by 17 percent, and southbound trips slowed by 2 percent ….”
Even more significantly, though, is the dramatic reduction in injuries: “… a 35 percent decline in pedestrian injuries and a 63 percent reduction in injuries to drivers and passengers, according to city data.”
As well, predestrian traffic grew: “Foot traffic grew by 11 percent in Times Square and by 6 percent in Herald Square, and a survey of local businesses found that more than two-thirds of the area’s retailers wanted the project to become permanent. … ‘It’s shifted the paradigm for what a street and sidewalk experience is supposed to be like in New York City,’ said Tim Tompkins, the president of the alliance.
Ah, that ol’ paradigm shift. Which is why New York City is leading the way to the Post-Motordom City.
i think you often give nyc far too much credit