A Real Traffic Solution

There is only one way to improve traffic in New York City. As much as city politicians and transportation officials, anxious to please their small but powerful driving constituencies, try to pretend otherwise, the only solution to traffic congestion is to reduce the number of motor vehicles using the streets.

In 1990, Transportation Alternatives' Auto-Free New York Committee published a 4-year, 15-point plan aimed at an achievable reduction in auto traffic by 20% in Manhattan and 5% citywide. The plan would also drastically improve metropolitan transit service while creating a network of auto-free streets. (The plan is summarized in Appendix C.)

Such a plan would constitute a long-overdue shift in policy and would have far-reaching positive effects on the city. Cyclists, who suffer the effects of exhaust and congestion most directly, would of course benefit. But so would everyone else who lives or does business in the city, whether they are primarily pedestrians or mass-transit users or children looking for a place to play. Commercial vehicle operators would gain as well, saving time now spent stalled in traffic.