1.

Yippee! More places for illegal street vendors!!!

2.

ROK88, I sure hope you've got your tongue in your cheek! In a city where 80% of the residents don't own cars, the streets are usually controlled by traffic engineers who think their job is to make it easier for the cars to go faster. That usually comes at the expense of the pedestrian.

Fifty years, lanes were narrower and sidewalks were wider. It was a better place for pedestrians.

3.

Curbed has a problem with prioritizing mass transit and pedestrians over automobiles? This is NYC, not St. Louis.

4.

yea baby
you do not own a car becuase you pay over 50% of your net income in housing.

5.

yea baby
i have an awesome ride, and i can afford it because i live in public housing.

6.

#2, I think what ROK88 may be referring to the fact that Dept of Transportation has done NOTHING to address the real problems in Soho which are the huge problems caused by the Holland Tunnel and Canal Steet traffic.

7.

Seriously, there is nothing to complain about here. I'd be in favor of reducing Broadway to two lanes of traffic--one going uptown and the other down--and only allowing buses on them. Why should we accommodate ugly suburban people and their disgusting New Jersey cars? This bus bulb is brilliant.

8.

Anyone want to place a bet on when the first taxi will zoom down Broadway and take out all the signage sticking up out of that "Bus Bulb" at Spring?

9.

Anonymous, the only thing that is going to address "the huge problems caused by the Holland Tunnel and Canal Steet traffic" is congestion pricing.

10.

sometimes you can walk faster than a dirty ass bus.

and where do bicycles fit into this new plan?

some day they'll figure it out...sad.

11.

I think it's awesome. Maybe it will finally start discouraging people from driving into the city. Damn fools. They'll definatley be more road rage too!

12.

#9, I completely agree with you, although, charging a toll on the Williamsburg Bridge would also help

13.

This post doesn't belong on curbed. Where's the "lockhart only" or "joey only" filter?

14.

Closing Broadway to everything except buses below Ann street would be great. In fact, get rid of the goddamn buses, too. They're mostly empty (if you pay attention) and if you can't walk from Ann Street to the ferry (or anywhere else in lower Manhattan), then you are pathetic.

As for congestion taxation, just tax the shit out of all inbound traffic except commercial trucks. Eighty percent of the incoming traffic in NYC is jersey yahoos going to Canal Street to buy counterfeit crap anyway.

15.

I think they are doing this on 30th street too.

16.

#12, Toll on Williamsburg bridge? What in the hell are you talking about. It is the least traveled bridge out of Manhattan/Brooklyn/Williamsburg/Queens quad... why you gotta single out the bridge that I have to use to drive into the city?!
Congestion pricing, is that really a good idea?

17.

Yes Pedro, it is a good idea.

18.

leland, you obviously missed the study that showed that the majority of cars in Manhattan daily are from the five boroughs.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70812FD38540C718DDDA80894DF404482&showabstract=1

Unfortunately you have to pay to read the full article but I remeber reading it at the time and bieng surprised at its findings.

19.

The fact of the matter is that the only way to reduce traffic is to reduce the number of motor vehicles present. One way to do that is simply to devote less space to 'em, i.e. narrower lanes and streets. Another is congestion pricing. There are others.

Changing behavior requires either the carrot or the stick, or a combo. Reducing space avail to cars, and therefore making it more difficult to drive, it a stick. Simple stuff, really.

20.

Among others how 'bout charging appropriate prices for the value of the 100sqft street space taken up by a car (by time slice) for parking and getting rid of all free parking?

Say $20 per hour?

21.

#12 here, I should have said tolls for each of the Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. People shouldn't be encouraged to drive through lower Manhattan just because there are no tolls. As more of lower Manhattan becomes residential (and Chinatown continues to gentrify) I think there will be a bigger and bigger push from the community to reduce the car/truck traffic.

22.

No. 18 - I don't know why a Queens car polluting and filling the streets is supposed to be better than a car from New Jersey. Queens has train lines, subway lines and express buses -- it's not necessary to make millions suffer so one can drive at the worst times of day.

I'm no. 2, and I live in Manhattan and have a car. But I take the subway to work.

23.

Um, did you read the part where leland said "ugly suburban people and their disgusting New Jersey cars"?

You and I agree. You just need to brush up on your reading comprehension.

24.

Another good idea:
Make verezanno tolls 2 way to stop trucks from using it to get into NYC for free from NJ, then clogging up downtown BK, and then downtown Manhattan to get out for free again - just to pass through.
More at transalt.org

25.

uh, no. 22, leland is not no. 18. so my comment was not referring to leland.

26.

oops, i'm no. 22 (and #2), so my comment was to #23

got that?

27.

#2, read gain.
In #18 I specifically addressed leland by NAME. I was responding to his/her comment about NJ drivers by saying that NJ drivers were the wrong target and that he/she should look at nyc drivers.

You can't be that slow surely?

28.

apology accepted

29.

For almost a century, NY's instant remedy for traffic has been to widen or newly construct roads and parkways. Catering to and encouraging driving has taken the city away from pedestrians and destroyed a lot of the streetlife and interaction that makes a city special. In other large cities outside of America, large parts of Downtowns are pedestrian only or restricted traffic. Bicycles lanes and street trams help to move people as well as preserve the intimacy of the urban landscape and quality of life. The amount of cars in NY is scary and spending 2 hours to go 2 miles is insane. i guess people still need more reasons not to drive. No doubt some people need to have a car, but most people are just lazy or need to be in their own little space bubble and not interact with anyone.

Make the streets smaller. Make the sidewalks bigger plus a bike path that isn't a Madmax death challenge. Masses of cars belong in the suburbs like malls and R.Moses. Maybe this project on Broadway is a start, but the city and shameful MTA are consistently clueless..

30.

#24, In order to get to Staten Island from NJ - you have to pay a toll, it is not free, it is about the same price as the Holland/Lincoln after the EZ-Pass discount. So these trucks of yours can go through Holland Tunnel or through Staten Island, and they still pay the toll.

If you really want to get into Manhattan for free, you need to go up through Bronx and then take the 3rd Avenue bridge or Madison Avenue Bridge, that is the only toll-less road that I am aware off.

Maybe Congestion Pricing is a good idea. But get ready for your Fresh Direct deliveries to go up in price.

31.

Congestion taxes should apply to non-commercial vehicles only. There's no valid, non-commercial reason for people to be driving into Manhattan--none whatsoever. Jersey and the outer boroughs are already dumping grounds for industrial refuse--just drop your stupid car off in those wastelands and fucking walk into Manhattan, if you must. If that's a little too inconvenient, then by all means stay home.

32.

"Maybe Congestion Pricing is a good idea. But get ready for your Fresh Direct deliveries to go up in price."

for what percentage of the total population is this a legitimate concern? really. and fuck fresh direct anyway for armies of large double-parked trucks,pandering to the lazy, and taking customers away from local businesses.

33.

No way #31. There are too many games played with "commercial" licenses and civil servants shouldn't be exempt either.

34.

my name is jane jacobs, such my ass bitch

35.

yeah, getting around lower manhattan isn't a problem for me, cuz i'm not dumb enough to drive, like you!

the only way to make it easier for your oh so precious and important tushie to get around lower manhattan will be to demolish some buildings and build more roads for your big shiny car.

more roads = less buildings = less money for real estate people.

math hard.

36.

He-he... tushie

37.

What's with the hissy fit, Curbed? This post must've been written by a newbie transplant from Houston. NYC is the only city in the nation where more than half of all households don't own cars.

Bus bulbs increase the efficiency of transit at the expense of single-driver autos (who shouldn't be driving into Lower Manhattan to begin with). Instead of considering the least polluting and most efficient way to move people, you revert to the auto-worship paradigm that drives this country to war in the pursuit of free-flowing oil and ever wider roads jammed with ever more SUVs.

It's shocking how reactionary the New York media is any time a progressive traffic measure is proposed. "An Inconvenient Truth" is praised to no end, but when concrete steps are taken locally that can reduce pollution the city's chattering classes snicker and complain. Get over it.

The good thing is New Yorkers are leaving Curbed behind on this one. Most people appreciate that the city is finally doing something to improve bus transit and reduce the number of cars on city streets.

38.

#37, the commentators above aren't saying the bus bulbs are a bad thing. They are saying that a few bus bulbs aren't nearly enough. Bus bulbs won't reduce the number of cars coming into Manhattan. It will only make the traffic worse. It doesn't solve anything.

39.

#38, the commentators and you are wrong. this does solve something. it dramatically decreases loading times for transit buses, which are not empty. secondly, it will not make traffic worse. it decreases capacity for traffic. this will discourage drivers from this route.

finally, i work on broadway, downtown. the traffic cannot get worse. that's the biggest joke in nyc, is that traffic can be made worse somehow. traffic will always be as bad as possible. if anything, this measure will keep things just as slow for cars as they always have been. the difference is that the bus passengers will be getting a smoother, faster ride, and the sidewalks will be less crowded.

ok?

40.

I work near one of the bulbs on Broadway and its curb and fence have become a stoop for people to sit on, a backdrop for street vendors, an eyesore for the neighboorhood, and a target for drivers surprised by an island right in the middle of a busy street. What a great idea! Next, why dont we erect random obstacles and traps on busy sidewalks
to ease pedestrian traffic too!

41.

IT HAPPENED! yep, an accident caused by the bus bulb. Today at lunch a duoble decker tourbus coming up on Spring St. had to make a wider than
usual turn on to Broadway around the bus bulb....
in the process taking up the entire street and hitting a Verizon Van. Sweet! Las Vegas should start running odds to see how many accidents we'll
get this summer at that intersection.