Mayor: Extend Traffic Plan to Provide Year-Round Relief

Today, the Mayor released a traffic plan that calls for creating pedestrian malls, distributing free MetroCards to delegates, and encouraging visitors to walk to Madison Square Garden for the Republican National Convention.

His plan is a smart way to accommodate the huge influx of people and the heightened threat of terrorism. Transportation Alternatives, New York City’s advocates for pedestrians, lauds the mayor for his plan and encourages him to extend the midtown plan beyond the Convention.

Further, Transportation Alternatives calls on the Mayor to institute Convention and year-round measures to limit the number of cars entering the whole of Manhattan, which would provide relief for conventioneers and New Yorkers alike.

Midtown is notorious for its dangerously overcrowded sidewalks. On an average day, people on foot outnumber motor vehicles 20 to 1, but 60% of street space is given to car traffic. The 34th Street Partnership acknowledges that its district, “boasts the busiest foot traffic in the entire city."

Says Paul White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives,

“The incredible numbers of people now walking every day in Midtown makes it a Convention every day. Terrorism, tourism and toe-traffic have long been issues in Midtown and will continue to create dangerously overcrowded streets long after the convention ends. The Mayor should extend these temporary policies to a year-round strategy to curb driving and promote walking and transit use."