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"Gridlock Sam" on NYC traffic
Mar 22, 2007
"Gridlock Sam" offers solutions for traffic problems, not unlike what Jan Gehl said at euroGel 2006.
From Solving New York's traffic problems:
The car accounts for very few people in total. There's a misperception because cars use so much space that we think so many people are using them. It's like the Yogi Berra quote, which in this case is very true: "it's so crowded nobody goes there." When I looked at Canal Street, I found no one goes there anymore. Traffic volume is very low, even though it's so crowded and filled with cars. All cars are doing is providing seating for people to view Chinatown.
I am not so sure that there are so few cars in the NYC.
Just about any apartment in New York City speaks of black soot from cars, no matter how high the apartment #.
I think the city has a high lung cancer rate also. Not clearly attributable to just cigarette flinging.
I live on 135th street and Lenox. The traffic is 24 hours of vehicles emitting lethal fumes.
Yes, New York City is broken.
The fix? Do what Houston does; Park and Ride and lightrail in the business district. You can't just jolly well drive wherever you like, whenever you like in their city. It works. They don't even have an nth of the public transportation that NYC has. They are fixed, i.e. not broken. Also tax those vehicles that insist on driving in NYC to match the healthcare needed to fix the people they break.
see
The Lone Star State Shines as #9
http://www.bestoftrendy.com/2007/02/lone-star-state-shines-as-9.html
> Just about any apartment in New York City speaks of black soot from cars, no matter how high the apartment #
An alternate theory is that the black soot is actually coal dust, which explains why western cities don't have it...
That said, there's no question that cars in the city are a huge waste on many levels. Now figure out how to eliminate the trucks and really have something.