The Bloomberg administration is moving ahead with what amounts to a radical, river-to-river reimagining of another major corridor: 34th Street, the Midtown thoroughfare that is home to Macy’s — and some of the city’s most congested traffic.
Automobiles would be banned on the block between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, creating a pedestrian plaza bookended by Herald Square and the Empire State Building.
The result would be a street effectively split in two.
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. Buses would still operate in both directions, and through the pedestrian plaza as well, but in dedicated lanes separated from passenger cars by a concrete barrier.
A public hearing on the plan was held on Wednesday, and officials from the Transportation Department met with business leaders last week. The intent is to create more space for pedestrians and to speed up bus trips on the street’s crosstown routes, which are among the slowest in the city.
NYC is really trying to ease traffic congestion. This is right by my old graduate school and I can tell you that the area is choked by pedestrians and car traffic. I tried to use the crosstown bus (M34) on many occasions but it was ridiculously slow. I remember hearing that when timed it averaged near 3 miles per hour during business hours. That's slower than many people walk! This seems like an innovative way to alleviate the problem.
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