It's OFFICIAL! Cars Are Banned On NYC's 14th Street

If it makes the buses run efficiently as they are supposed to, it may bring people back to public transit. In an area like Manhattan, I could not imagine driving anywhere. Public Transit, Uber, a bicycle or walk. The King St. change in Toronto was done to allow Street Cars to move along quickly as they are supposed to. And it has been a success especially as more urban development has drastically increased the population in King West.

I hear you but I don't think the problem is caused by autos, actually.

Over the past 15 or so years in NYC, the leadership has changed main streets in obtuse ways: Creating pedestrian plazas, creating specialized bike lanes, creating bus-specific lanes.

These changes have increased congestion although city officials put the blame on rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber. Now, this is their latest move, which of course, inhibits commuters that need to drive in — I am one of them.

The communist-fascists are raping that city.

Glad to see the USA learning from Canada. I have to vote on October 15th in a Federal election. It will take me 8 minutes to walk to the public school being used to hold the vote. If I want to vote early I would have to walk to another school 20 minutes away on foot. I don't have to drive 1 hr or 2 to get to a polling station. Nor do we ever have to line up for 5hrs to vote. No Gerrymandering has its benefits. #Canada

What are you talking aboot? I drive 2 miles in my suburb of Manhattan. Walk in, 5 minutes or less, I’m out. All in, round trip, it takes me 15 minutes or less to vote.

@jeffgall

Jurisdictions once monitored by the justice department for racially discriminatory voting practices have collectively closed more than 1,000 polling places since a watershed 2013 US supreme court ruling released the jurisdictions from oversight, according to a new watchdog report.

In 757 counties and county equivalents that formerly had to pre-clear voting practice changes with Washington, 1,173 polling places disappeared between 2014 and 2018, a study by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, part of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalition, found.


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The closures could disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color, especially when combined with restrictive voter ID laws, gerrymandering and aggressive voter roll purges, the report warned. Last month, a separate study found that US election jurisdictions with histories of egregious voter discrimination have been purging voter rolls at a rate 40% beyond the national average.

The top three states for polling site closures were Texas (–750), Arizona (–320), and Georgia (–214), which all have Republican leadership.

The trend has also accelerated with 69% of the recorded closures occurring after the 2014 midterm elections. Thirty-nine per cent of the jurisdictions in the study had seen an overall reduction in the number of polling places between 2012 and 2018.

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“Even when [voters] do hear about [polling closures] ahead of time, voters may have to choose between going to a new polling place significantly further away and working enough hours that day to put food on the table – an impossible choice that no one should ever have to face,” the report quotes Beth Stevens, director of the Voting Rights Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, as saying. “And it’s a choice that usually falls on the most vulnerable voters, thereby reinforcing existing power structures and sending a message to these voters that they are less important than others in the eyes of their government.”

Elections officials mostly did not reply to requests for information about polling closures, the report said.

“Many either did not respond to requests for comment; responded but did not provide meaningful information; or responded with false information,” it said. “By far, the most common justification for closing polling places was no justification at all.”

Officials have defended polling closures by saying the rise of mail-in voting and other changes means fewer polling sites are needed. But the watchdog group warned mail-in voting was not in wide use and no study had been undertaken to evaluate the impact of voting practice changes on minority groups.

“Closing polling places has a cascading effect, leading to long lines at other polling places, transportation hurdles, denial of language assistance and other forms of in-person help, and mass confusion about where eligibl

Simple solution to NYC traffic. Make it mandatory that all deliveries to all businesses be made between the hours of 11:00PM and 4:00AM.

Sorry - but there is NO SIMPLE SOLUTION to the NYC Traffic Problem. Even when they continue to Raise tolls every year - the big traffic problem is Morning and Evening Rush -during the day may seem bad - but it is nothing compared to the actual commuters. Agent 00R can tell you that one even if he is NOT limited to the rush hours to travel.

The only real way to fix the traffic problem is to reduce the number of cars on road - and there is not any such method to do that - that will be accepted by all involved.

@Pugproud - That is a capital idea and would certainly aid in rush hour traffic. Having said that in my area the deliver guys are run off their feet doing 85-120 deliveries a day. Nearly all to homes for online shopping purchases. Not sure they could make all of those without extra trucks on the road. But worth investigating.

As @Agent00R said, there are a bunch of factors at play. But I would not expect plazas and bike lanes to disappear, the walkable city concept has taken hold and car volume will be reduced. You will see more of this in major cities, not less as the years go by.

To be fair to everyone using a car in a city like Manhattan could be limited to alternative days. And the same would go for taxis and Uber type service providers. People would not like it at first but traffic would really move along.

Cities like New York, London and even Toronto need to look at alternative ways to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow. There many levers, some may not work in certain locations but may be useful in others.

Here’s a novel idea. Privatize mass transit, and keep the unions out. It will run better and more efficiently. Get rid of costly pensions for more manageable 401k contributions. I have a friend whose father drove a bus his whole career for New Jersey Transit. He retired in his 50s with a full pension. Wife never worked. Now he owns a 4K sq. ft. home in New Jersey. Commuters are paying twice what it should cost because of these terrible government practices and pensions.

Insane!

But good for them for taking advantage while the eating was good...

Only way to fix the issues are the congestion tolls (coming soon) and to limit the number of Uber/lyft drivers below Central Park. The traffic problem in the city has gotten much worse as the ride hailing services have taken off. The city should force t&lc and Uber/Lyft to work together and figure out a way to get the yellow cabs onto the ride hailing services and eliminate all the other random Uber drivers cruising around Manhattan below Central Park. The other Uber/Lyft vehicles should be restricted to drop offs only in those parts of Manhattan and one pick up leaving the area after their dropoff.

Driving/working in NYC on a daily basis, I can tell you it's not the ridesharing services creating traffic.

It's poor city planning and civil engineering projects.

Your narrative is literally the talk track for today's city officials.

I was in NYC this last weekend and saw just how much construction is taking place. Almost every building was getting a face lift or was being built brand new. There must be thousands of construction workers in NYC plus all the material that had to be brought into NYC and then out of NYC. Scaffolding, cement, miles of electrical and cabling. Trash, plaster dry wall etc. I agree that its stupid busy right now but some of that has to be related to the current growth spurt.

But the Fascist mayor Bill de Blasio can drive his huge SUV entourage all around on 14th St. with no restrictions. Now Fascist De Blasio can drive to his favorite restaurant on 14th St. with no traffic at all.