- I know 42nd Street has 6 lanes, but it usually turns into 4-5 lanes when a truck needs to make a delivery or w/e.’
- I never said a light rail on 42nd Street would be a bad idea. I think its awesome if it does not interfere with traffic. Imagine the 1st and last lane of 42nd Streets, 34th, 23rd, 86th, 72nd, 125th,14th, and Canal Street having a street car that has its own lane and only goes crosstown? It would run independently w/o the need of human input, and would circle around those streets making no connections in order to simplify the system? 1 stop per block, and payment is received before entrance of the vehicle. The train woul cost $1 and work with Unlimited cards and transfers. It runs every 2 minutes, and is expected to stop every block. In other words, it keeps going until the nearest train is a block (or station) away. It would be pretty awesome.

Also note that the train’s lane would be separated into its own traffic by a 2.5 foot high steel so kids won’t just run into it or w/e.

Just wana throw that in there. I’m just against closing off a street from traffic. Mixed use sounds a lot more efficient.

Doesn’t closing off 42nd street seem too impractical and wasteful? I know you believe cars are evil, but you’re not decreasing demand by doing so. Anyone who does not need to travel into Manhattan by car does not because streets are too overcrowded as-is. If 42nd Street wasn’t the most conevnient means of access to the Lincoln Tunnel I wouldn’t be so hostile to this. As it stands it does. If additional tunneling were to reroute the tunnel to 32-35th street I wouldn’t mind the proposal so much. Let cars get to Midtown via 34th street instead. But blocking the closest path to the tunnel is stupid.

The biggest problem this article poses is where the hell are all the cars that cransverse from Queens to NJ go now?!? Side streets? 34th Street? How will trucks that deliver goods and merchandise to shops and businesses on 42nd street or Midtown be affected by closing off the biggest motorway street from cars? Side Streets are already beyond capacity. Trucks often block streets mid-day to deliver merchandise because of little room to park. All the other Crosstown streets such as 34th, 23rd, and 59th are already crowded and busy. They don’t need more excess cars.

We need more roadways overhead. NOT LESS! We need a Crosstown Expressway that connects to various Avenues and the FDR Drive and runs overhead above a Crosstown street. (pref. 42nd Street because of its proximity to the tunnel to NJ)

You can’t ignore the high demand for cars and large vehicles to travel in-and-out of Manhattan.

This solution is short-sighted. Pedestrian malls have proven to be failures in other cities. This is the reason I never ventured past my 1st classes in Urban Planning. Practicality and seeing problems in plans are never in terms with design. In other words, Architects have structural Engineers to back designs up. Urban Planners do not. They have politicians. Not a very good mix.

In other words, Underground/Overhead transport = GOOD because it maximizes the use of land needed.

This does the opposite. IT hinders growth by making it look ‘futuristic’ and ‘clean’ without realizing that NYC is great because of its grit and crowded streets. The same way buildings are marveled for their architecture.ie: Buffalo: Tourists come to see buildings in Buffalo, but run away from the city as soon as they see them.

Now Sadik-Kahn’s DOT is moving to full-scale, physically separated lanes in Manhattan, as seen in Chelsea on 9th and 8th Avenues. On the West Side the Community Board gave its OK to such lanes 110th St to 59th on Columbus and Amsterdam, and a similar plan is advancing for 1st and 2nd Avenues as well.

These moves are not quite as good as congestion pricing, because the don’t raise any funds to improve outer-borough transit. But they do reduce the space allotted to commuting by private car from Westchester and other suburbs, and give it over to city residents who bike and walk.

(Yes, the real bike lanes make streets safer for pedestrians, by reducing the number of lanes to be crossed at intersections.)