” … creeping like overgrown ivy across the city streetscape. “
So begins an article in the New York Times.
“Then there were the open-air pedestrian plazas, sprouting from the concrete in hubs like Times Square and Union Square ….”
My God, what could be next, what could that sorceress Sadik-Khan have in store?
Well, this: Sixth-and-a-Half Avenue.
The Transportation Department plans to connect the public plazas and arcades
that run from 51st to 57th Streets, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, creating a quarter-mile walkway through open-access lobbies and canopied spaces between office buildings that offers refuge from the tumult of the city’s main arteries.
For years, the passageway, linked by a series of privately owned public spaces, has been an open secret among the area’s inhabitants, presenting perhaps the most tantalizing jaywalking opportunity in the city.
Most of the rest of the article, sigh, is about the potential for traffic distruption (i.e. cars) :
To critics, the proposal represents the latest in a string of domineering policies that do little but befuddle drivers and pedestrians and choke traffic flow. A stop sign, they say, will only exacerbate congestion across an already clogged section of Manhattan …
The Comments section also reflects the culture war that frames every issue, it seems, in a polarized America.
The critic:
I really wonder who decided NYC streets belong to cyclists and pedestrians, since there are many asking that the streets be returned to them.
The streets belong also belong to people going to and from work (and not necessarily by walking or riding a bike), buses, delivery trucks, and many other vehicles. They may not be everyone’s favorite, but are a vital part of this city.
The response:
The people of NY decided, long ago. Most of us are pedestrians. Join us!
Of all people who commute to work in New York City, 41% use the subway, 24% drive alone, 12% take the bus, 10% walk to work, 2% travel by commuter rail, 5% carpool, 1% use a taxi, 0.6% ride their bicycle to work, and 0.2% travel by ferry.
2004 American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau.
I would have liked to find more recent data, and that for Manhattan alone. But it makes the point. Most of the people in the space shown by the diagram got there by train.
Crazy that taxi had a higher mode share than bikes in 2004!
Vancouver was a pioneer in mid-block pedestrian crossings – with the one on Hastings near Woodwards.