Remember back in late May 2009, when seemingly overnight the North/Southbound streets in Times Square were suddenly turned into pedestrian lounge-rooms? The streets were painted green and filled with plastic chairs and tables.
The results are in, and those newer metal chairs and tables are going to stay plus get an upgrade to permanent furniture.
Times Square - before new traffic pattern
Times Square's pedestrian area
It’s all part of the Green Light for Midtown project spearheaded by Mayor Bloomberg and implemented by the NYC DOT*, where the goals are to make the NYC streets safer and to reduce NYC traffic and congestion. For Times Square, DOT was looking to improve the NYC traffic flow on 6th & 7th Avenues and make Broadway safer for pedestrians and drivers. If you’ve been through that area, you’ve seen the new pedestrian spaces on Broadway from 42nd – 47th Streets, and also on 33rd – 35th Streets.
How do we know if it worked? DOT used GPS units in taxis to compare travel times in fall 2008 against fall 2009 and found that: Read more…
