Broadway closings to be permanent
Positive feedback from tourists and merchants have convinced Bloomberg to make the temporary closings in Midtown permanent, despite worsening traffic flow.
Positive feedback from tourists and merchants have convinced Bloomberg to make the temporary closings in Midtown permanent, despite worsening traffic flow.
I don’t think it’s clear the project actually made traffic “worse.”
It sounds like there were improvements in some locations, and worse conditions in other locations, and that generally the overall results have been less beneficial than predicted. They also noted that there were safety improvements for pedestrians and drivers, so it is a little more significant than just catering to the preferences of tourists.
The actual study doesn’t appear to be available, though, so we kind of have to take them at their word. The process seems a little out of whack here, too. The City Council has to vote on relatively minor land use changes, but you can completely alter the streets in Midtown with no legislative authorization?
It reminds me a little of Bloomberg’s decision to impose his PlaNYC plan on the City by fiat, instead of going through the legally-required 197-a process. As long as his proposals generally align with the interests of NYC’s civic/planning organizations, apparently they’ll keep looking the other way.
The study has been made available:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/broadway_report_final2010_web.pdf