Not content to rest on her laurels, Janette Sadik Khan, commissioner of the DOT, is breaking new ground on New York City's streets. Since the Times Square, Madison Square, and countless other street redesigns, as well as the 9th Ave, Grand St, and Sand St (leading up to the Brooklyn Bridge) protected bicycle paths to name a few, the DOT has acquired the reputation of being a sleek and effective planning organization. Even a spokesperson for business interests in Midtown, Dan Biederman (president of the 34th St Partnership, the Chelsea Improvement District, and the Bryant Park Corporation) asserts that “This is not your father’s D.O.T. This agency says they do something and they do it.”
And indeed this can-do agency has taken on two more of New York's landmark intersections, handing them over to pedestrians, cyclists, and buses: 34th Street and Union Square. Both plans have been announced recently and will take shape in upcoming months. While the 34th Street redesign should be done by the end of 2012, Union Square may be up and running as soon as Labor Day, which for my non-US readers is a day in early September when you should stop wearing white pants (or better yet you could avoid them altogether). But I digress.
According to the New York Times, rejiggering 34th Street would look something like this: "On the west side of the pedestrian plaza, all car traffic would flow west, toward the Hudson River. On the east side, all car traffic would move east, toward the East River." At the heart of the project are plans for a pedestrian plaza, although buses would be allowed to flow through. This plaza would stretch between 5th and 6th Avenues, connecting hotspots such as Herald Square and the Empire State Building. The plan bears a pricetag of $30 million. That said, according to a study by the city, about 90% of the people traveling along 34th Street are on a bus or on foot (Source). In other words, until now, 10% of people (in cars, including taxis) have been occupying approximately 75% of the street surface (my estimation from google maps satellite). Despite that, it is also one of the most congested corridors in the city, to the point where it is usually faster to walk from one end to the other than to drive.
Union Square, on the other hand, has long been a pedestrian haven, attracting throngs both to the park and the Greenmarket (as well as to a Christmas market in December) - not to mention the Whole Foods at the southern end. The DOT plans to "reshuffle" traffic at a problematic corner of the square. According to the Times: "Under the new plan, all traffic heading south on Broadway toward Union Square would be blocked off at East 18th Street; at that point, cars would be forced to take a left-hand turn. East 17th Street, meanwhile, would become one-way, with only westbound traffic allowed in a single lane. A pedestrian plaza would be installed along the north side of the block between Broadway and Park Avenue South, and a bicycle lane and pedestrian walkway would be built on the south side." (Source). If you didn't understand that, be not alarmed. The map below shows my interpretation of this new and improved corner. The lines represent the redirected flow of car traffic (Eastbound on 18th, Westbound on 17th), and the blue rectangles are the pedestrian zones.
All I can say is that I cannot wait to come back to New York and see these new projects for myself, or at least Union Square since the other one will take a bit longer. The city where I live now, Hamburg, is fantastic as far as public space and pedestrian zones are concerned. In fact many European cities are far ahead of New York in terms of allocating space to pedestrians and cyclists. However, I would wager that the New York City DOT's accomplishments in recent years far surpass most European cities' in sheer number and speed of implementation, and as such are unprecendented. But despite my rave review, I won't give them a pat on the back just yet... As my grandfather always told me as a child, "There's always room for improvement."
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