By Joy Bergmann
About a dozen residents and business owners expressed their frustration at a Community Board meeting Tuesday with new rules prohibiting left turns onto 64th Street from southbound Broadway. Plastic barriers were set up at the intersection by NYC DOT right after Labor Day.
Wendy Topkis said, “Now I can only turn east at 68th Street or 61st Street. It’s adding 5 to 10 minutes commute every time. And, how is this affecting emergency response times on my block?”
The changes are part of a larger plan meant to make pedestrians and bicyclists in Lincoln Square safer.
CB7 Transportation Committee Co-Chair Andrew Albert said the committee had predicted such problems when the DOT proposed the change to improve both traffic flow and pedestrian safety. The Committee pledged to relay the residents’ concerns to the DOT and to seek data from emergency service agencies about any adverse impact on response time.
I can’t believe the city keeps installing these hideous plastic poles all over the UWS. Absolutely atrocious and even uglier once they inevitably get run over, as the pic above shows has already happened.
Seriously, just put in a few large planters and you could accomplish the same goal at little cost without blighting the neighborhood.
These are designed to allow ambulances and firetrucks to run over them in an emergency.
Maybe bicycles in the city are not safe at all. Better to walk or to take the excellent mass transit.
I work at 1900 Broadway (I can see my office window there in the pic) and saw a firetruck run those poles over on their way to an ostensible emergency a couple days ago–they haven’t seemed to recover, but whatever.
My mine beef is they’ve completely thrown off the timing of the 64th Street crosswalks coming from the downtown 1 station across Broadway, making it longer to get across, but if it’s saving lives, who cares about the added 15-30 seconds.
Re: “CB7 Transportation Committee Co-Chair Andrew Albert said the committee had predicted such problems ….The Committee pledged to relay the residents’ concerns to the DOT”
Yup, CB7 will certainly “relay residents concerns” and the DoT will certainly reply!
WHEN PIGS GROW WINGS AND FLY!
How about changing the direction of West 61st Street from East bound to West bound? You can’t take a left off of Amsterdam between 59th and 67th street. Many people now just drive down 61st in reverse which is a huge safety issue.
Small corrective to the porkchop: the left off Amsterdam is on 66 St. (not 67th).
oooh a dozen residents ::shaking in fear::
What about the thousands upon thousands who walk around that area every day and are very happy that it has been redesigned with safety in mind? Certainly more than a dozen proponents of the redesign could be found.
Sorry, I suppose we shouldn’t worry about that so our precious drivers can save 5 minutes!
As someone who appreciates safety you are actually making it more unsafe for the people who live in this area. There are so many elderly people and children on the block and with this disruption where emergency vehicles need to turn it makes the response time longer. Pedestrians can cross the extra short block to ensure the safety of residents. Also, now cars stay in the intersection since they know no one is crossing so pedestrians are more likely to get hit. In reality this is ensuring no one is safe!
This is another absurd over-reach on the part of the DOT. There is no conceivable rationale for prohibiting turns from Broadway onto 64th Street.
Want to do something meaningful? Fine drivers $1,000 for honking their horns incessantly on West 66th Street at Columbus Avenue.
No conceivable rationale? Come on. Think before you write. If you drive south on Broadway through the six way intersection where Broadway crosses Columbus at 65th Street (the only crosstown street to cross Central Park from 59th to 79th Streets) you will immediately notice that blocking left turns onto 64th Street will increase the flow of traffic on Broadway and into that very crowded intersection (in front of Lincoln Center – not too many cars there) because no cars will back up waiting to make left turns across the oncoming northbound traffic. It is obviously an inconvenience for people who live on 64th Street east of Broadway but it will also reduce auto traffic on 64th, a benefit and safety issue for pedestrians.
I do like your idea about honking though.
My destination was W 64th between Columbus and CPW. There was a lot of traffic. As I was about to make my left turn onto W 64th St. I saw the barriers, which I assumed were temporary. I was in a hurry so I solved the p.roblem by making a U-Turn at W 63rd St. That worked nicely. U-turns there should be legal. 🙂
The closing of the turn from Broadway southbound onto 64th street has not decreased congestion. In fact, it has resulted in significantly more congestion on Broadway going south as all the cars that would have taken the turn now proceed to 61st street to circle back around, but only 2-3 cars per light can make the turn. The northbound congestion has also increased since so many more cars are circling around from Central Park West and Broadway. Most important, it has caused a significant safety issue now that emergency responders have had to drive over the cones or take the same circuitous route to the street. If permanent blockades are erected, the impact could be disastrous. The reality is that when the study was conducted, there were no safety issues on 64th street. The problems were at 65th street. These changes did not fix a problem but have caused many new ones.
Agreed. And it’s causing crew traffic on 68th as anyone going to 66th st transverse will now cut across 68th and turn right on cpw rather than go all the way down to61st. Previously this traffic was split between 68th and 64th.