The Toll Traffic Takes

Though it's difficult to quantify, current levels of motor traffic in New York City take a huge psychic toll on the population. According to a New York Times poll cited in a report by the Manhattan Borough President's office, traffic congestion is the second biggest reason (after crime) that New Yorkers leave the city. [2]

Washington Square Park, April 1992, after a car killed 5 and injured dozens. Photo: Jon Orcutt

When people talk of New York as a hostile environment, a prime component of that hostility is conditions on the street — the horns and sirens that work constantly on people's nerves; the anger and aggression that spill from cars when motorists can't reach their destinations because they're competing with too many other motorists; the windows that have to remain sealed against dirt and noise; the sense that all but the hardiest tree is doomed to an early death; the fear of traffic that leads parents to keep their children barricaded indoors; the thousands of abandoned cars that scar parks and neighborhoods.

Though some New Yorkers manage to inure themselves to this daily onslaught, they should not have to. New York's traffic conditions are based on a premise that has gone unquestioned for too long: that automobiles deserve greater, or even exclusive, accommodation than other means of transport — more even than walking, a fundamental human activity.

Perhaps more than any other single step, reducing auto traffic would ignite a fundamental change in bicycling in New York City, luring new cyclists onto the streets by the thousands and alleviating anxiety and danger for those who already ride. In the 1992 City Cyclist survey, 508 of 839 respondents (61%) rated “fewer cars on the streets” as “very important”; out of 18 possible improvements in the NYC bicycling environment, only “more support from government, media” and “better street surfaces” ranked higher. Moreover, another 251 (30%) said fewer cars was “somewhat important,” leaving only 42 (5%) who said fewer cars was “not at all important.” (Thirty-eight, or 4% of survey respondents, omitted this category.) Similarly, when non-cyclists are asked what it would take to induce them to ride a bike in New York City, the most oft-heard response is, “Get rid of the cars.”

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