Will Car-Free ‘Summer Streets’ Work?
By Sewell ChanThe city’s Summer Streets program will have its debut Saturday morning. The Bloomberg administration plans to bar motor vehicles from a 6.9-mile north-south route in Manhattan for six hours each on three consecutive Saturdays. In an interview this morning with Fox 5, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg expressed hope — but not certainty — that the event would be a success:
Cars are important, but streets are there for everybody. And we’re going to try, for three days in a row – three Saturdays in a row – to see if the public wants to go out in the streets and reconnect with each other and bicycle and skateboard and walk and kibbitz and maybe a lot of restaurants will put tables out – something different.
He added, “This has been done in Bogotá for 30 years. They love it. It’s phenomenally popular and it probably will work here. If it doesn’t, at least we’ll have tried.” The route will be closed to vehicles from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 9, 16 and 23. It will go from East 72nd Street — down Park Avenue, Fourth Avenue, Lafayette Street and finally Centre Street — to City Hall.
At most points, drivers will be barred from crossing the route. They may do so only at 24 cross streets that will be fully open, including major thoroughfares, like 42nd, 34th, 23rd, 14th and Houston Streets; East 72nd Street, at the northern terminus of the route, and Chambers Street, at the southern end.
The advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, which has become increasingly influential in shaping the Bloomberg administration’s transportation policy, will provide escorted bike rides to Summer Streets tomorrow from Astoria, Queens and Bedford-Stuyvesant and Park Slope, in Brooklyn.
Three rest stops will offer cultural and fitness programs, and places to relax: East 51st Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, East 24th Street between Park and Madison Avenues and Cleveland Place between Spring and Kenmare Streets.
How will the city assess whether the program works? Officials haven’t been all that clear on that point.
Certainly, preventing traffic chaos is a big part of it. Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s transportation commissioner, said this morning that the city would deploy about 800 police officers to close off streets and divert traffic. Notices on the affected roads were made overnight, and businesses all along the Summer Streets route have been put on notice, too, she said.
The economic impact is also uncertain.
Ms. Sadik-Khan said she thought Summer Streets would actually help the economy. “We think this is going to be a win for residents and for visitors and a win for businesses along the corridor that will benefit from the additional foot traffic of thousands of people being out,” she said.
Finally, perhaps, there is the question of how many people will show up. Right now, that seems to be anybody’s guess.
When the mayor announced the program back in June, he was joined by the cyclist Lance Armstrong and the musician David Byrne. Will similarly high-profile visitors grace the car-free streets of Park Avenue tomorrow?
<a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/will-summer-streets-work-2/">http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/will-summer-streets-work-2/</a>;
Related: <a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/will-summer-streets-work/">http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/will-summer-streets-work/</a>;
What's Related