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Successful Start to Summer Streets Saturdays
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 10, 2008
Modified Jul 1, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 10, 2008
Modified Jul 1, 2009
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The first Summer Streets Saturday, where the city closed 7 miles of Manhattan streets (between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.) to create a vehicle-free boulevard for people to stroll, bicycle, and and just enjoy, seems to be a big hit. Of course there were complaints from drivers trying to make their way around.
A woman walking the route happily said to the Post, "Most of the time you are fighting with the traffic. Now you see the beauty of the city." A cyclist told WCBS 2, "It normally feels so unsafe that I tend to go all the way around the Greenways and Westside... I feel very peaceful and relaxed, kind of like biking in Europe." And an al fresco diner at Les Halles told the Daily News, "It's nice to eat outside and not have car smoke in my face.
One reader commented yesterday, "This was pretty fun, I went out at 9am went up and down twice and grabbed a free helmet on the way home. I live a block over on Lexington and I gotta say that I've never seen it so crowded before, but it's not all that bad really, it's just never that crowded at all in the 20's." However, another reader who lives along the route weighed in:
Well, in my neighborhood they started using amplified sound at 910 am and kept dodging the rule ("no amplified sound before 10:00 am") for one-half hour before admitting that "no amplified sound" did not mean it was okay to use amplified sound quietly. [See http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/summerstreets/html/faq/faq.shtml for rule] In a related matter, if bicyclists are to use NYC streets more fully, I think they should also be trained, licensed, and insured; their vehicles should be registered and inspected for safety; their parking should be regulated; and any violation of the above, or traffic rules, should penalized. Anything short of this is not only reckless, but a liability nightmare for pedestrians and motorists.
Summer Streets will take place again on August 16 and August 23. Mayor Bloomberg said the city would bring it back if successful.
If you have Summer Streets photographs on Flickr, share them by tagging them "gothamist"--or email photos to photos(at)gothamist(dot)com.
Tagged
car free
department of transportation
greening
summer streets
vehicle-free
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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