If you've never driven through Times Square...too bad, you can't anymore

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/05/26/report-cars-officially-banned-from-new-yorks-time-square/

Long story short, 42nd through 47th and 33rd through 35th are now a pedestrian mall.

Discuss.

Bloomberg...

it already was.... it was just never official

yeah because driving in manhattan was always sOO much fun anyways..

Good. It's about time.

ignorant wrote: yeah because driving in manhattan was always sOO much fun anyways..

I agree haha. I just wanted to hear everyone else's take. I'm waiting for a comment from Wally, resident outspoken New Yorker.

ignorant wrote: yeah because driving in manhattan was always sOO much fun anyways..

Ever do it?

i made a point of doing so in my MG during nice summer nights. late at night theres traffic, but not nearly as bad, makes the sights enjoyable.

I'll miss it.

BobOfTheFuture wrote:

ignorant wrote: yeah because driving in manhattan was always sOO much fun anyways..

Ever do it? i made a point of doing so in my MG during nice summer nights. late at night theres traffic, but not nearly as bad, makes the sights enjoyable. I'll miss it.

never done that, I've never been through there at night... I've been there many times, my sister lives in Brooklyn and Queens before that.

what is going to be interesting.. I have made deliveries to several small theatres on the square... and you could only go in through the front. It's going to be difficult to get a truck in there

i'd be willing to guess that at some point in the near future, most of lower Manhattan is going to be carless. As for deliveries, I'm sure they'll allow certain trucks in for weekly deliveries.

good luck to the rest of the island squeezing down in a smaller parking lot.

I have mixed feelings.

Although I am a fan of "de-automobilizing" some of America's cities and towns...at the same time...I think cars have been in Times Square so long that they are fitting there.

However...I've heard that driving through Times Square can be nightmarish and most of the time its easier to just avoid it.

If your a pedestrian, you tend to loathe Times Square because of the amount of traffic makes it difficult to get from Point A to Point B without getting stuck in the wave.

BTW, this move was designed by one of the leading Anti-Car Traffic Engineers in country who apparently really knows her stuff and has had very few complaints after her ideas were pushed through.

I H8 NY.

Couldn't care less.

I berkleying loath that berklying berkly of a e36 m3 bag city. Sorry, gave it two chances. Maybe it was the Yankees fans that pushed me over the precipice.

I have been there twice and both times reinforced that 1) I LOATHE New York City and for that matter all large cities 2) if I ever do go back it will only be for things like the Museum of Natural History 3) if #2 ever happens I will NOT drive

So that means I couldn't care less if Times Square is a pedestrian mall now.

I always enjoyed NYC.. even if most times I was there was in a 32foot box truck with a gross weight of a dozen or so miatas.

Something about all that mass kept people from acting too stupid, especially when cruising the BQE at 60+ mph with your passenger hanging on for dear life around the corners

You can still drive through Times Square, but you will have to come down Seventh Ave instead of Broadway. Driving there is normally not too bad except on weekend nights and holidays. I'm glad I'm not at work this week. They are hoping that once people get used to it being closed traffic will sort it self out, or that people get frustrated enough that people will leave their cars home. It will probably work, but not for the reasons they want. With the economy in the toilet there are fewer people coming in every day since they no longer work here. Traffic in general has been lighter than normal for a few weeks now.

Greg Tivo said: i'd be willing to guess that at some point in the near future, most of lower Manhattan is going to be carless. As for deliveries, I'm sure they'll allow certain trucks in for weekly deliveries. good luck to the rest of the island squeezing down in a smaller parking lot.

They had their best chance for that happening last year and it didn't pass. They were planing to implement Congestion Pricing like London has where cars and trucks entering during peak hours would be charged a fee. The state shot it down, like they do anything that makes a little sense because it would somehow hurt the poors ability to get to work.

PHeller wrote: Although I am a fan of "de-automobilizing" some of America's cities and towns...

I've talked about this a bit to some friends. I really question the thought that cars belong in cities. NYC is infinitely walkable. Why have so much traffic there? Why have cars at all?

The book Ecotopia put forth the theory of banning cars to the outskirts and letting the streets become tree lined green thruways. Would that really be that bad? For the average person it's too expensive to have a car in NYC anyway.

my sister has lived in NYC since 1999 and uses public transport to get around. She has never had a car there. I think the unlimited monthly pass used to be $50. Parking, gas, car payment, insurance, and upkeep are a damnsight more than $50 a month.

My sisters boyfriend has never had a drivers liscense until this past year. He's 29 or 30 and never lived outside the city except for college.

Add me to the "berkeley NYC" crowd. There are only 3 things that will get me into that town, the Met (and maybe some other museums), Broadway shows, and the Mets. And If I go down there I have people in Middle Town to take me the rest of the way.

DC is the only large town i would want to go to, If I could ever afford it. And once in DC all you need is a Metro pass. I still want a tattoo of the metro map

ignorant wrote: yeah because driving in manhattan was always sOO much fun anyways..

Depends on when you go. It's not so bad during the late hours.

mad_machine wrote: Something about all that mass kept people from acting too stupid, especially when cruising the BQE at 60+ mph with your passenger hanging on for dear life around the corners

We have our fair share of idiot drivers here, which is why our insurance is so high.

Sorry to hear you have to deal with the BQE. I hate driving it, but you can't beat the view of Manhattan when approaching the promenade.

Wally wrote: The state shot it down, like they do anything that makes a little sense because it would somehow hurt the poors ability to get to work.

Which is funny, considering they keep talking about raising subway/bus fares...

Xceler8x wrote:

PHeller wrote: Although I am a fan of "de-automobilizing" some of America's cities and towns...

I've talked about this a bit to some friends. I really question the thought that cars belong in cities. NYC is infinitely walkable. Why have so much traffic there? Why have cars at all?

For a number of reasons. Not everyone works or lives in NYC.

In my case, I live in the Bx. It takes me 2.5 hours to get to work by mass transit, 45 minutes by car. And on top of that, I can stack errands and do things that I otherwise couldn't/wouldn't do without a car

The book Ecotopia put forth the theory of banning cars to the outskirts and letting the streets become tree lined green thruways. Would that really be that bad? For the average person it's too expensive to have a car in NYC anyway.

It's not as expensive as you think, especially if you have the car registered/insured elsewhere in the state (which happens more often than you think).

captain_napalm wrote:

Wally wrote: The state shot it down, like they do anything that makes a little sense because it would somehow hurt the poors ability to get to work.

Which is funny, considering they keep talking about raising subway/bus fares...

That was the begining of the money problems we have today. Our previous management borrowed heavily for new equipment and construction like the Second Ave subway and Long Island Rail tunnel to Grand Central betting that the congestion pricing was going through. Now that they have lost that money they have to make up for it, so in the end the poor end up with the bill anyway.

Xceler8x wrote:

PHeller wrote: Although I am a fan of "de-automobilizing" some of America's cities and towns...

I've talked about this a bit to some friends. I really question the thought that cars belong in cities. NYC is infinitely walkable. Why have so much traffic there? Why have cars at all? The book Ecotopia put forth the theory of banning cars to the outskirts and letting the streets become tree lined green thruways. Would that really be that bad? For the average person it's too expensive to have a car in NYC anyway.

Any business that has large retail would need to have special routes setup for receiving shipments.

Every cab company in NYC would have a fit.

The reason Mass Transit is inefficient is because buses and trams either get stuck up in traffic or they make 80 millions stops. The only way to change that is more mass transit...but that lowers ridership, which makes the system even more inefficient. In a perfect picture, you'd want empty streets except for electric or diesel vans that could carry everyone where they needed to go ...the downside to that is then you've got a city full of vans instead of cabs.

That's the depressing parts. 125 years ago we had cities that were designed around mass transit, walking, or small horse drawn carriages.

50 years later we had completely switched those plans around the automobile.

We've spent the last 75 years moving in the wrong direction and it will be very hard to move away from a future that is reliant on personal automobile transportation. Not only that, but it may be a very long time before we see the death of the 18 wheeler.

Somewhere, Robert Moses is looking on in amusement...