Summer in the City Has Streets Without Traffic

June 29, 2009, 2:25 pm

Summer in the City Has Streets Without Traffic

By Michael M. Grynbaum

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times The final Saturday of last year’s Summer Streets program, when cyclists and pedestrians controlled a roadway usually dominated by vehicles.

Traffic on Park Avenue may seem slower in August than the rest of the year. But traffic on the avenue will literally stop for three Saturdays this year, as the city shuts down 6.9 miles of a Manhattan roadway in a reprise of last year’s Summer Streets program.

Inspired by a 1970s recreational experiment in Bogotá, Colombia, the program attracted 50,000 bicyclists and pedestrians last year on a path that extended from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street. This year’s events will take place on Aug. 8, 15 and 22 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The city has also expanded the program to smaller stretches of the outer boroughs, hitting a total of 13 neighborhoods.

The street shutdowns will be staggered throughout the summer. For example, five blocks of Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, will be shut this Saturday as well as on July 11, while a stretch of Van Duzer Street in Staten Island will close on Aug. 1, 8, 15 and 22. A full list of the program, called “Weekend Walks,” can be found on the city’s Web site [pdf].
The project is another initiative by the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, who has led a veritable annexing campaign that has walled off automobiles from large swaths of Manhattan, opening up public space in Times Square, Herald Square and along Broadway and Ninth Avenue.

Ms. Sadik-Khan said she hoped the Summer Streets program would become a regular event for New Yorkers, “right up there with the New York City Marathon and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”