Take Back the Streets - New York Needs a Congestion Zone

UPDATE: There's an online discussion with an interesting New York Times article here.

Whether or not to take down the FDR Drive is the wrong question. The real question is, Why do we allow millions of New Yorkers to be inconvenienced and poisoned by a small number of drivers who would rather sit in traffic jams in their own cars than take public transport or a taxi? Less than 2% of the people on Manhattan island every day cause the traffic jams that bring with them congestion, polluted air, noise pollution and general aggravation.

All we have to do to solve this problem is to stop putting the rights of a few individual automobiles over the comfort and safety of the residents, commuters and tourists who make up the other 98% of the people on the island every day.

This is not a new idea. The city's last three mayors all announced plans to put tolls on the free bridges coming into Manhattan, with "congestion pricing" that would go up and down according to supply and demand. And all three backed down in the face of threats of lawsuits and lobbying from the auto and highway interests once they took office.

The Congestion Zone in London shows that the idea works. I happened to be there when the plan went into effect, and the result was immediately visible and all for the good. Overnight, central London became more pleasant and easier to navigate, on foot, by bus or in a taxi or car.

I was staying in a hotel on High Holborn, which is an extension of Oxford Street, and the Underground Central Line, which runs under Oxford Street and High Holborn was closed for repairs, so I frequently took buses along Oxford Street. Before the Congestion Zone went into effect, it was faster to walk along Oxford than to take one of the many buses that went by. Afterwards, the buses zipped along at 25 and 30 miles per hour.

Since that time, a 15% reduction in traffic has meant that trips in central London take half as much time, or less. Perceptually, the streets are quieter and less noxious. Both walking and driving are immensely more enjoyable.

This weekend, the congestion charge will go up from £5 to £8, because there has been some inevitable creep as people get more used to paying. So the city can raise the price to a higher level of resistance, and make more money for the public transport system.

Here in New York, despite the fact that 80% of Manhattanites walk or take public transit to work every day, our streets are controlled by traffic engineers who favor the car over the pedestrian, and who devote significantly more time and money to fixing intersections where there are auto accidents than where pedestrians are killed by cars. (Traffic engineers call pedestrians “MHOs - Movable Hazardous Objects.” As opposed to trees, which are “FXOs - Fixed Hazardous Objects.” “...even if all these accusations are true, the automobile is still an improvement on its principal alternative, the pedestrian. Pedestrians are easily damaged. Try this test: Hit a pedestrian with a car. Now have the pedestrian hit the car back.... Which is in better shape?” P.J. O'Rourke)

Our driving lanes are too wide, which let cars go fast and makes the pedestrian walk farther to cross the street. Making the streets one way also speeds up the cars. Avenues like Third, which were two way until the 1950s, become auto sewers, places where the cars rush along and the pedestrians on the sidewalk are an afterthought.

Even in Manhattan, the auto engineers think making the avenues two way again would be like going back to the horse and buggy era. But look at how wide the sidewalks were then. We've gone too far in accommodating the car, and all it's gotten us is traffic jams, honking horns, road rage and pollution.

We don't have many squares in New York, where the avenues are our primary public realm. The public realm is the physical manifestation of the common good, and it's surprising that in America's greatest pedestrian city, we've allowed the traffic engineers to do so much physical damage it.

The solution lies in simple fixes like wider sidewalks, narrower traffic lanes, more street trees, and perhaps a few avenues turned into two-way boulevards. Here and there, say on 34th Street or Second Avenue, a few streetcars would be great improvements too. Streetcars get more usage than buses, because they're faster, quieter and more comfortable. And we all know the Second Avenue subway won't be ready for years and years, if ever.

The picture below, proposed improvements for 59th Street from a hundred years ago, is not the way we would do it today. But why is it that when we were so much poorer, we were able to do so much more? We have never spent more money than we spend today on our platinum plated highway system.