Starting Memorial Day, Broadway from 32nd Street to 35h Street and 42nd Street to 47th Street will be transformed into pedestrian plazas. The experiment will continue through the end of 2009. The goal is to hopefully improve traffic flow along downtown Seventh Avenue, which currently is one of the most congest roadways in the world, as well as along uptown Sixth Avenue. The pedestrian plazas will eliminate the cross-overs (aka X-like intersections) currently there which tend to slow down traffic. For instance, in the photo below, the far left-hand traffic lanes will be converted to a pedestrian plaza.
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Margot Tohn of the seminal NYC parking guide (Called “Park It!”), walked the re-configured Times Square area recently and set forth how one can navigate this new pedestrian mall.
As you know, Broadway is closed to vehicle traffic from 47th to 42nd Streets. All traffic is diverted to 7th Avenue. You can navigate this area as follows:
You can drive cross-town on 47th to 42nd Streets, and you can get onto 7th Avenue from any of the cross-town streets.
You can make right turns to go West on 47th, 45th, and 43rd Streets from 7th Avenue.
You CANNOT make left turns to go East on 46th and 44th Streets.
If you’re walking, Margot found that you’ll probably use the crosswalk at 45th through 42nd Streets, but I just strolled right across all of Broadway to get past 46th Street.
Thanks Margot for figuring this all out for us.