No-Walking Zones Tested To Fight Midtown Gridlock
The New York Times
By David W. Chen

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New Yorkers like to think of their city as a pedestrian's paradise, a place where jaywalking is almost considered an inalienable right in a gas-guzzling world. But with crowding in midtown Manhattan nearing crisis proportions and traffic often at virtual standstill, the city is taking action: it is forbidding pedestrians from even crossing the street at 10 of midtown's busiest intersections.

The idea is a revolutionary leap given that New Yorkers often ignore such basic barriers as ''don't walk'' signs and crosswalks. But the Giuliani administration feels the pilot program is necessary to ease gridlock, and if it proves successful, may apply it to other parts of the city.

The program, which was announced yesterday by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir, began on Tuesday with barricades being set up at 10 intersections between Lexington and Sixth Avenues on 49th and 50th Streets. It will end Jan. 5. The restrictions are intended to allow cars to make swifter right and left turns and to make it easier for pedestrians to cross at other intersections.

That is the theory, anyway.

But initial reaction to the plan was split along party lines, and passionately so: motorists said they loved it and that it was about time, while some pedestrians lambasted the plan as being anti-New York City.

''The new plan is a godsend,'' said Michael Caballero, a bus driver with New York Apple Tours, who was parked on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 50th Street, shaking his head at the surrounding congestion.

To which Charles Komanoff, a transportation consultant, responded: ''I don't know if I have words to describe how stupid this is. Why don't they just eliminate the sidewalks and run the West Side Highway down Fifth Avenue?''

To non-New Yorkers, all this hoopla about some pedestrian barriers may seem like much ado about nothing. After all, why kvetch over some detours that may, even for the most pedestrian of pedestrians, take an additional five minutes?

But to some New Yorkers, this is not about detours, or time, or anything quantifiable per se. In a city where most people don't own cars and disdain those who do, the issue is about the unfettered ability to walk anywhere, any time, anyhow, as if walking were one's birthright, as if walking were an activity that made New York New York and the rest of the world, well, not.

''We're not Los Angeles, where the automobile is supreme,'' said an exasperated Seth Kamil, director of Big Onion Walking Tours, which leads tourists on biped-powered jaunts throughout the city. ''We're not a suburb, where sometimes you don't even have sidewalks. We're New York City. The ability to go from home to job to shopping to everything on foot: This is what New York is all about.''

From the city's point of view, though, the issue is not existential; it is numerical. A recent study done for the Times Square Business Improvement District counted as many as 7,000 pedestrians an hour passing a given point at peak periods -- or about two people a second, every second. And traffic is crawling at an average of 6.2 miles an hour on midtown streets this year, the slowest it has ever been, according to the city.

So in stepped Capt. Allan Hoehl of the Midtown South Precinct.

When traffic lights turned green, Captain Hoehl found, only one or two vehicles managed to complete a turn before the light changed again. A solution, he suggested, was to use barricades to divert all walkers to the side of the street away from turning traffic.

To illustrate the effect, imagine a motorist driving on 49th Street, a one-way thoroughfare heading west. If the motorist wanted to turn left onto the southbound flow of Fifth Avenue, he or she would ordinarily have to wait for the pedestrians to cross from the southeast corner to the southwest corner. And wait.

But with the barricades, no pedestrians are allowed to cross there, clearing the roads for left-turning vehicles.

Imagine next, a pedestrian coming up to that intersection. Instead of meandering across that intersection, he would meet a three-foot-high accordion-like metal barricade running down Fifth Avenue for the equivalent length of four taxis. There are police officers at the intersection preventing the pedestrian from simply going around the barricade and jaywalking (which, by the way, carries a minimum fine of $27). Instead, the pedestrian would have two choices: walk north to the northeast corner of 49th Street, then head west and south to get to that southwest corner. Or walk to 48th Street, cross Fifth Avenue and walk north to get to that corner.

Dizzy yet?

Blocking off streets to pedestrian traffic is, of course, not new in New York City: Herald Square and Union Square are among the places that have had occasional barriers to protect pedestrians from passing traffic. But transportation consultants said they were unaware of any situation where barricades had been installed at crosswalks.

''This is about favoring the minority of people who are driving in their cars over the majority of people who are walking -- who outnumber them 3 to 1 at a minimum,'' said John Kaehny, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a watchdog group. ''It's an idea that comes from the 50's, the era of putting the car first and ignoring pedestrians. 'Tis the season for the car.''

Some transportation advocates also feel that the proposal will merely move pedestrian congestion to other intersections. But city officials say they believe that this will not be the case because cars and pedestrians will not be in each other's way. And they are confident that people will notice the difference.

''It will be a minor inconvenience for pedestrians,'' Mr. Safir acknowledged at a news conference yesterday at City Hall with Mr. Giuliani. ''But so far in the pilot we've had a very positive response from the walking public, and certainly a positive response from the driving public.''

On the streets, reaction was mixed -- and as predictable as gridlock on a holiday weekend.

Luis Garcia, 37, of Massapequa, N.Y., was driving a truck for American Eagle Corporation, delivering linen to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, when he discovered that he had 30 minutes to spare. It was the barriers, he realized, that had saved him time.

And Ray Kottner, a taxi driver who has been darting through New York City traffic for 51 years, said it was the best thing he had heard in a long time.

''Take any busy intersection,'' Mr. Kottner said, ''and when it goes to making a turn, pedestrians, they just straggle out, and they do it illegally. If you get barriers to work, it'll be a dream come true.''

Some business owners said that they worried that they would lose some of the walk-in traffic -- the very thing generated by meandering, spontaneous, unregulated walking. And bipeds were none too pleased about their sudden lack of freedom.

''The whole thing is so stupid,'' said Craig Webb, 37, a graphic artist who had to take an unexpected detour en route to a Christmas Eve celebration at a friend's house. ''I don't understand the purpose of it. It's just hurting the walkers.''

Then he whispered, ''If the policeman was not standing here right now, I would push this stupid thing over.''

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