New Yorkers disagree about 34th St. pedestrian plaza

NEW YORK CITY – After he maneuvered around the Broadway pedestrian plazas, taxi driver Ashish Sharma said he is not convinced that the Department of Transportation has the right idea.

New York City DOT has transformed Broadway Blvd. into pedestrian plazas, closing off vehicular traffic to make way for thousands of pedestrian commuters and visitors.

Pedestrian plazas are designed to improve traffic flow, pedestrian safety and urban aesthetics, according to the DOT.

But many motorists like Sharma are not convinced of the plazas’ benefits.

 “It builds up a lot of traffic, and it’s a waste of time,” taxi driver Jherob Sing said. “I think it’s the worst idea that ever could have happened.”

Despite complaints, however, the DOT is working with the 34th Street Partnership to develop a new plaza along 34th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, one of the busiest locations for pedestrian traffic.

According to Daniel Biederman, president of the 34th Street Partnership, complaints about the pedestrian plazas are due to a misunderstanding of the problem.

“You never can talk to a taxi driver about congestion because they have a one-track mind and not a very sophisticated one,” Biderman said “It’s always any restrictions are going to cause more traffic rather than less. The truth is pretty much the opposite.”

Biderman explained that the former traffic lights along 6th Avenue used to be three-phase light, which took longer for traffic to move through the lights than the current two-phase light.

According to 34th Street Partnership Vice President of Retail Services Dan Pisark, this particular block of the 34th Street pedestrian plaza has a pedestrian count of 10,000 to 11,000 people an hour.

Because bikers and pedestrians outnumber motorists, the plazas are a necessary step in efficient urban development, Pisark said.

Long Island resident Elise Stiller, however, believes the plazas create more problems than they solve.

“I really don’t think they’re all they’re cracked up to be, in terms of the havoc they cause,” Stiller said. “For what it is worth, what it costs, how it’s putting truckers out and things like that, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Stiller added that she thought that if the plazas were designed for pedestrians to enjoy, then there are not enough tables and chairs to accommodate all who would want to use them, especially during the lunch hour.

“Let’s put it this way,” Stiller said. “I wouldn’t vote for it.”

Added to the issue of traffic, Sharma said he worried about pedestrian safety.

“It makes the situation more dangerous because you don’t know that every cab driver is going to drive carefully,” said Sharma.

Sharma said that he was afraid some less careful taxi drivers might drive into a plaza and harm more people than otherwise.

Pisark said that this was not a valid concern because there have been no incidents since the first Broadway plaza’s construction in 2008.

On the contrary, Pisark said that the current conditions on 34th Street were actually more dangerous than a pedestrian plaza would be because of the amount of pedestrians who jaywalk.

“People can’t even use the sidewalls,” said Pisark. “They’re actually walking in the street, and they’re risking their lives because there’s traffic moving along. And they think that’s an alternative to walking on the sidewalks.”

The DOT plans to continue studying the effects of current pedestrian plazas in order to find the right ratio of plazas to roads in order to improve the city.

As the city continues to build plazas and reroute traffic, Pisarck said the 34th St. Partnership and city officials will continue to search for the best ways to share the road.