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It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

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Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#101
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does someone do if they twist their ankle badly and are on crutches for a month?

The same thing they do in Europe, where cars are banned from almost every city center. We manage just fine.

> where cars are banned from almost every city center

I wish that was true.

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that kicked off this week's controversy about NYC in particular is a geniune attempt to improve transit by focusing on how to move the most people as fast as possible. What is angering drivers is that the city turned much of 14th St into bus-only lanes, and removed some street parking in the process as well. And, it seems to have worked, at least from early indications! Buses now move much faster! If that h…

> And, it seems to have worked, at least from early indications! Buses now move much faster! The speed of buses is not the appropriate metric by which we should be evaluating policy. Speedy empty buses are not exactly a win. Instead, we should be asking how much time and money does it take to get from point A to B.

Do you think there are less people on those buses than there was before the ban?

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#103
post #52

I think cars should be banned from most densely populated city centers in general. There is a word describing it "Pedestrianization" Reasoning: Cars pollute the air which makes the people living and walking in the city centers sick. Cars pollute with noise. Cars cause pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Its nice for peoples health to be able to walk and run in open areas. Streets which previously was used by cars can b…

Even if you ban regular cars you're still gonna have to deal with commercial/emergency vehicles (ambulances, moving vans, delivery trucks for local businesses.

Those are much fewer than cars and without them blocking the road emergency vehicles can move much faster and without a thick layer of parking lining every street, commercial vehicles can have designated spots.

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your legs also solve the first and last mile problem.

Not everyone has a fit and healthy pair of legs

No, but if we drove less with cars, the amount of people with fit and healthy legs would increase. Also, there are plenty of other vehicles for those, who can't walk, which are allowed in pedestrian zones. As well as exceptions for people being dropped off, who qualify as handicapped.

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that kicked off this week's controversy about NYC in particular is a geniune attempt to improve transit by focusing on how to move the most people as fast as possible. What is angering drivers is that the city turned much of 14th St into bus-only lanes, and removed some street parking in the process as well. And, it seems to have worked, at least from early indications! Buses now move much faster! If that h…

> And, it seems to have worked, at least from early indications! Buses now move much faster! The speed of buses is not the appropriate metric by which we should be evaluating policy. Speedy empty buses are not exactly a win. Instead, we should be asking how much time and money does it take to get from point A to B.

I agree in general, though bus route in question (The M14) has around 26,000 riders per day on an average weekday, making it one the busiest in the city. It doesn’t lack for people using it — it’s just been really slow until now.

http://web.mta.info/nyct/facts/ridership/ridership_bus.htm

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#107
post #52

I think cars should be banned from most densely populated city centers in general. There is a word describing it "Pedestrianization" Reasoning: Cars pollute the air which makes the people living and walking in the city centers sick. Cars pollute with noise. Cars cause pedestrian and bicycle accidents. Its nice for peoples health to be able to walk and run in open areas. Streets which previously was used by cars can b…

> Reasoning: Cars pollute the air which makes the people living and walking in the city centers sick. Cars pollute with noise. Cars cause pedestrian and bicycle accidents.

So this means that densely populated areas are not welcome for older people, like the ones who can't really walk as much anymore? Interesting way to discriminate.

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, not at least what I have seen. Even in the thread you are now answering in, there is examples ( https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/18/paradise-life... ) where a mostly-car street turned into a mostly-pedestrian street, with still the option for vehicle to travel if they must. Same if you take a look at the Superilles (Superblocks) in Barcelona ( http://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/superilles/es/ ), they stil…

Manhattan is different in that it connects New Jersey and Brooklyn into a super region, they are dependent on each other to thrive. Banning cars would be an absurd nightmare at least in this situation.

I work in Manhattan and live in Brooklyn, and my office overlooks the Holland Tunnel (connection to New Jersey). Roads are a backlogged mess every evening, where "evening" on Friday seems to start at noon. Traffic cops are in a half-dozen intersections around the Holland Tunnel entrance manually restricting flow and more importantly rerouting cars to keep all the possible entrance routes roughly balanced.

The vast majority of this traffic is from Manhattan - otherwise it wouldn't be spread across so many routes. If you want to designate a cars-ok route in Manhattan between the Battery Tunnel (to Brooklyn) and the Holland Tunnel and let that back up, you could do that and it would be less of a mess than the status quo: it would stay on West Side Highway out of the way and it would have less traffic.

One time I took a taxi from Newark to my home in Brooklyn, and the taxi driver dropped me off right after getting out of the Holland Tunnel (next to a subway stop) saying he didn't want to deal with more traffic. There is no effective vehicular link between New Jersey and Brooklyn right now. There is a moderately effective link between each of those and Manhattan, that's it.

Re: It's time to ban cars from Manhattan?

#110
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lug around about 6/7 bags of video equipment around from time to time for interviews I do. I could never manage it on the subway. It would otherwise be awesome to have less cars on the roads.

Pedestrian zones in German cities habe exceptions for transportation to or from locations inside them. Otherwise, stores in these areas couldn't get their wares etc. This just prevents regular car traffic and creates a safe space for walking. I don't know if the concept can scale tonan area the size of Manhattan. Just the necessary level of traffic would probably add up to to a lot of vehicles entering and leaving. I…

Isn't delivery traffic in German pedestrian zones mostly limited to certain hours? I recall seeing trucks in the early morning, but almost never during the day. Not sure if that was due to regulation or because that's when most deliveries naturally happen.
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