The New York Times reports that the grand experiment taking place in Times and Herald Squares is set to stay:
New York City Traffic Experiment Gets a Permanent Run
Those kooky pedestrian islands, made of paint and folding chairs, have received the blessing of Mr. Mayor. Speaking as a person who does not own a car and rarely takes a cab: yay! But, as the New York Times put it:
“Mr. Bloomberg, whose administration has been criticized as too imperious in its social engineering, said the mixed results from the Broadway project would not discourage him from future experiments. ” (The mixed results related to the fact that the islets did not vastly improve vehicle traffic speed as promised.)
(The above is from the Flatiron District. I’m not sure if that area is included in this announcement)
Haussmannia sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, but the beauty of this experiment is that it could have been undone by folding up the chairs and painting over the polka dots. The rezoning of Williamsburg, for one thing, cannot be undone so easily.
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