Broadway Gets a Bicycle and Pedestrian Friendly Makeover
Image Credit: Hiroko Masuike for The New York TimesNYC Improves a Major Mid-Town StreetNew York City, which recently unveiled a plan to be more bicycle friendly and is considering a bike-share program, will soon boast a bicycle and pedestrian friendly public esplanade along one of its most famous streets, Broadway. When the new street, to be called Broadway Boulevard, is opened in August, it "will run from 42nd Street to Herald Square" and "change that section of Broadway from a four-lane to a two-lane street." Removing two lanes will enable the city to add "a bicycle lane and a pedestrian walkway with cafe tables, chairs, umbrellas and flower-filled planters."
Will Broadway be Part of a Broader Trend?The makeover of Broadway is part of Mayor Bloomberg's plan to reduce emissions and traffic in the city, and is a sign that although he failed to introduce congestion pricing in the city, Mr. Bloomberg "intends to push ahead with smaller-scale initiatives to wrest at least part of the street from cars and trucks." At at cost of $700,000, the project will bring more open space and greenery, as well as fewer cars and noise, to a prominent thoroughfare in one of the world's most prominent cities. Will this be an isolated, cute initiative, or part of a broader trend towards cities build on a human, rather than vehicular, scale? Time will tell. . .
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