They did that years ago on Fremont Street here in Las Vegas. It’s like a giant sidewalk now. Although Las Vegas’ intention wasn’t to cut greenhouse gases but rather to revitalize downtown, it makes driving around this area really difficult.

Positive move- A way to reduce congestion in a spot where it wasn’t needed without…. *big gasp* super high taxes!!! Some parts of Europe should be listening, but of course their making big bucks….

Maybe a good idea, but it also means that the surronding streets will just be tha more congested, if that’s even possible.

They should ban pedestrians, bulldoze the sidewalks, and add lanes.

Also this means major $$$ for developers to change those streets around. This is a pretty big deal.

mayer, hilarious.

well i dont care cause i dont live there but some of these could use the walk …

A good move by NYC.

Stupid, just like all of the other Bloomerg Follies.

^^ Brilliant! Just like all of the other Bloomberg bold moves.

The man has giant huevos, and I’m respecting him for that.

Even way out here in L.A.

Considering this is my ‘Hood
It will make 6th and 8th avenue that much more congested
They have been phazing this in for a year, taking away lanes of traffic and putting in islands and spaces for seats. but still keeping two lanes of traffic

The only benefit I see is it will be a better place to pick up tourist chicks looking for a New York fling!
DrFill

someday you’ll have to park your interstate gas hog at a “welcome center” just outside of major cities and rent small electric car to drive within city limits…mark my words!

but don’t mark how i said “car” instead of “cars”, which was what i meant…moving right along…

I can see this possibly making sense in cities like Manhattan, Tokyo and D.C. where a real and diverse subway or above-ground train system exists for mobility, but it’s a bad idea for places like the entire state of Florida, ALL of Los Angeles, Seattle WA, and Dallas Texas. It will only work in major cities that are not only places of convergence but more importantly have real (read: not simply busses) public transit systems available.

This is a good step forward for NY… but I don’t think it is practical enough to catch on in most other cities in the USA. Public transit needs to come a long way first.

It’s a sad statement… I live in the largest metropolitan area of my state, and I work exactly 12 miles from my house, straight down a single road, however there is no bus or train that can take me to work.

Raineman, you’re in almost the same situation I’m in, except I only travel seven miles to work – without ever seeing the freeway. It takes me about 15 minutes to get to work, but if I were to take the bus, it would take 90 minutes and I would need to change buses three times.

Interesting. Not familiar with the area, but working to make urban marketplaces more pedestrian friendly is a good goal and one that has helped bring more shoppers into those areas elsewhere.

subways wouldn’t work very well in seattle, that’s true, but the bus system there is a lot better than many other towns i’ve lived in…in the midwest, for example, i avoid the buses like the plague, but having lived in seattle for a few years i can safely say it was a decent way to get around town…in st. louis? not so much…st. louis has an above-ground train, but it’s a Y-shaped thing with just a single fork and doesn’t really cover a lot of area…it gets me to the airport from where i work, though, at least…

i wish major cities had much more robust mass transit systems, but the cost (generated primarily in new taxes) would drive the right wing crowed to pick up pitchforks and torches for sure…

crowd…too…gd i need a spellchecker to follow me around where ever i go these days…

LeftWing, I totally agree with you concerning Seattle buses. I could get from Shoreline to downtown in under 30 minutes by bus when I lived there. It’s also a great downtown area to walk around in. The freeways, however, are horrible, but mostly because of all the extremely passive, lonely drivers that refuse to carpool, even though half the city works for either Microsoft or Boeing (exaggeration). I did find the express lanes to be cool, but I seldom used them as I was almost always heading the opposite direction.

I don’t know if subways could be built in Seattle. I do know they have that underground bus area for the buses that come in from Renton. But if I recall correctly, Seattle was originally built below sea level, and they had to fill in the streets with rubble from mountains over a 10 year period. Therefore, the ground isn’t quite as sturdy as that of New York and other areas that have subways, plus, many of the buildings are below ground because of the strange settling. When you enter some buildings, you actually enter on the 7th floor, because so much of the street around the building has been filled up.

Seattle is a crazy place.

If I lived in NYC, I would not drive anyway.

Seattle is nice.

I caught a bus (a bus!) from SeaTac to the Westin years ago.

Tokyo has the best Subway sytem I’ve ever seen, the the Apple has the best destination: 161st & River