"Think Car-Less Downtowns Won't Work? Hey, If New York Can Try It...." Green Car Advisor

Think Car-Less Downtowns Won't Work? Hey, If New York Can Try It....

Pedestrian malls are nothing new, a number of cities have closed thoroughfares - some intermittently and some permanently - to reduce congestion, promote leisurely shopping and even to help clean up the air.

But when the biggest city in the nation tries it, on famed Park Avenue and nearby streets, that's news.

We dispatched Green Car Advisor contributor Robert E. Calem to the scene to see what he could see, and what he found was a crowd of happy people.

No one we talked to wanted the car to be banished forever, but the ability to walk, bike, skate or run in downtown Manhattan without having to dodge traffic came as a welcome breather - literally and figuratively - for most.

We think it's an ideal that every town - big and small - ought to try. Think of the fuel we'd save, and, who knows, some of us might find we actually enjoy walking once in a while.

Here's Calem's dispatch:

New Yorker Chris Natale and daughter Emilia, 4, enjoy a Saturday bike ride on a car-free Park Ave.

By Robert E. Calem, Contributor

NEW YORK, N.Y. - In a bid by New York City's Department of Transportation to promote greener forms of transit, automobiles were banned from nearly seven miles of Manhattan streets for six hours on Saturday. And in typical New York fashion the void was quickly filled - by joggers, walkers and throngs of people on bicycles, skateboards and in-line skates.

It was exactly the scene the city government had intended for Summer Streets , an experimental program that is closing a usually congested route between the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on three consecutive Saturdays this month.

The program started August 9 and will conclude next Saturday, August 23. And while there is still no official count of how many people participated, talk about the first Saturday led to an apparently bigger turnout on the second, according to Dani Simons, director of the Summer Streets program.

The weather was sunny and warm with low humidity, and if it is as nice next Saturday, Simons says, she expects attendance to be up again.

Summer Streets is an experiment, but if the agency officially deems it a success, it could be continued and even expanded in future years.

Most of those enjoying a stroll or bike ride on the startlingly empty streets told us they thought it very successful -although merchants along the newly car-free streets seemed divided.

Tom Hochfelder (left), a New York native who has lived in Manhattan for 35 years, called the program, "One of the best things I've seen in the city in a long time."

He was walking north in the center of Park Avenue when we interrupted his stroll. It was his dark sports coat - a standout among the casually clad bikers and joggers - that caught our attention.

"It's great," Hochfelder said about the absence of cars. "I think they should continue it, if they do it on Saturday or Sunday mornings, when you don't have that much traffic. The more we can encourage people to walk, the better it is for the city. Less pollution, better exercise for everybody, and it will create more of a sense of community."

Hochfelder is a realist, though, and said he wouldn't expect a no-autos policy anytime other than on weekend mornings. It would be too disruptive to try it other times, he said.

We caught Chris Natale, a Manhattan resident for the past eight years, as he was bicycling south on Park Avenue with his wife Liza, and daughters Emilia, 4, and Anna, 2. "I think it's a really nice opportunity and I can't imagine why you wouldn't do it every Saturday in the summer. I think that it was a really smart idea," he said.

But as a commuter who drives daily from his Upper East Side home to his job on Long Island, Natale spends a lot of time in his own car. "So I'm not a kill your car kind of guy. I think cars are really necessary, but I think it's also necessary to provide people an opportunity to be away from them."

It wasn't only Manhattan residents who were taking advantage of the car-free streets.

"I think this is cool," declared Mark Rothman, who was visiting from Yorkville, Illinois, with his 11-year-old son Hudson. The two (right) were trekking north along Park Avenue, en route to Central Park from their starting point at Grand Central Station.

Commenting on the difference lack of auto traffic made, Rothman said he observed that "folks that are walking look pretty laid back instead of walking with their shoulders forward like they're trying to beat themselves up. That's how it usually looks."

This was his fifth or sixth visit to New York, and Hudson's third. When the two visited New York last August, going to Grand Central from Central Park in a cab along the same route was "stop-and-go," Rothman said.

He was somewhat less upbeat about the Summer Streets program's real impact on the environment, but said that "every little bit helps."

Jose Costas, manager of T. Anthony Ltd., a high-end luggage store at Park Avenue and 56th St., wasn't a big fan.

The program has been a big money loser, he said. About half of the store's usual customers arrive by limousine and "with the street closed, they're not coming this way, they're staying towards Fifth Avenue." The street closure has cost the store thousands of dollars in lost revenue, said Costas.

"It's only three weekends, but God forbid it would be like a regular thing," added assistant manager Anna Tarczi. "We'd probably have to close on Saturdays, because it doesn't pay."

But John Keoshgerian of Larry's Bikes Plus - a bicycle store located off the Summer Streets route at Second Avenue and 88th Street - quickly found a way to make car-less Saturdays pay.

He's set up a bike rental stand in front of the Loews Regency Hotel at Park Avenue between 61st and 62nd Streets.

On the first Saturday of the program he rented 35 bikes. This weekend, he more than doubled his rentals - and even sold two of the bikes at the end of the day. He said he's looking forward to setting up the stand again next weekend.

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Bicyclists, skaters and walkers on Manhattan's Park Ave. wait at traffic signal, with nary a taxi in sight.
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"I haven't seen one person roll by without a smile or walk by without a smile on," he said. "I think if they continue it year after year it's just going to get bigger and bigger. I wish they would continue it. It's great for the health of the city. It's great for business."

Certainly some types of businesses will be adversely affected by the street closures, DOT's Simons concedes. Yet "by and large," she says, agreeing with Keoshgerian, "this is going to be good for business,"particularly for restaurants and coffee shops with outdoor seating, where the fresh food will be - rare for New York in the summer - complemented by fresh air.