42 St LR and no car traffic

Does such disdain for LRT (from "real" rail people, we guess) remain limited to 42nd Street? Where's the subway "option" for 125th Street? 110th? 34th Street, as NIMBYkiller rightly points out? 23rd?

A world-class city -- and New York is in so many ways "top of the heap" -- can in fact dictate how its visitors and tourists can or should travel. Until fairly recently, it very nearly dictated how one would speak -- English only, please -- even within many corporate environments (and hotels). The latter has changed, and for the better. Why relegate tourists to only a subway-(bus?)-taxi choice?

Interestingly, even NYCDOT people, mostly on their own time, make it a point to touch base with NJ-ARP and/or tour HBLRT on their own. The parallels and applications aren't exact, and we won't claim they are or can be. But wholesale dismissal of LRT, and/or streetcars, on Manhattan streets flies in the face of ongoing U.S. urban developments elsewhere. It's not the 1980s anymore. And there's no need to pit LRT against subways, modal favoritism notwithstanding.

I said 34th St because I'm hoping maybe it can somehow be tied in to an LIE LRT. 125th St can easily be solved by SAS. Not ever crosstown street however needs to have an LRT line. If 34th gets it, 23rd definately should not. Maybe 28th St would be a good middle ground?

NIMBYkiller wrote:I said 34th St because I'm hoping maybe it can somehow be tied in to an LIE LRT. 125th St can easily be solved by SAS. Not ever crosstown street however needs to have an LRT line. If 34th gets it, 23rd definately should not. Maybe 28th St would be a good middle ground?

28th street going east (or 30th street if you want it to go 2nd avenue to the Hudson) and 29th street going west would be an excellent middle ground. 28th/30th and 29th street would be close enough to Penn Station to make a light rail line work without tying up too much traffic elsewhere.

I think this is a GREAT idea. I walk to work over and on 42nd street and it's a miracle that someone hasn't been f-ing KILLED yet! Manhattan doesn't need to be car friendly. A nice wide walking space and a simple light rail system would be great!!! I'm all for it!

I'm all for restricting vehicular access into Manhattan, but wisely. Like I already said, 42nd St is a major connection between the Queens-Midtown Tunnel(I-495 Long Island Expressway) and the Lincoln Tunnel(NJ495, which connects directly to I-95 New Jersey Turnpike). Banning cars from that street, Canal St, or Delancy St, is NOT an option unless some sort of connecting highway is built, and that's major infrastructure work in a place where there really isn't space for it.

Ok, explain what's going to happen when an ambulance or police car has to get from 39th Street to 45th Street and they have to go all the way around to 1st ave just because they can't cross 42nd and somebody can't get the help they need because it didn't come in time? Don't tell me they'll have those devices that change the traffic light to allow them to pass like some cities already have, you'll know they'll have cement planters blocking any access for security.

What happens when the UN is in session, and they close down the east side? Is everybody going to use the West side? And don't say that traffic will be restricted sooooo much that It won't be an issue.

What if someone wants to take a bus from 34th street uptown to 59th? Will all the buses will be rerouted to use 1st Ave or 11th Ave or the West Side Highway? Just because they can't cross 42nd. Oh yeah that won't add any traffic!

And if someone commutes from the Bronx and takes the Lex down to GCT will they really get off the subway, walk upstairs to the street and pay another fare just to go to 7th or 8th ave? Or will they figure that getting on the shuttle or the 7 train is more reasonable than paying another fare?

And will all the businesses along 42nd want 2 or 3 years spent mashing up the street and sidewalks in front of their store fronts to build this system? People would not want to walk along a street when construction of that magnitude is going on. Less people on the streets, means less shoppers, which ends up as less money in the businesses pockets.

Wouldn't Taxi fares rise if this happened and wouldn't they lose business? Less people will be taking taxis to get cross town, meaning increased fares for everyone. That wouldn't make people happy.

I'm sure there would be other effects as well besides these. Would someone care to address any of these?

Uh, where does it say having an LRT on 42nd will prevent emergency vehicles or buses (or any other vehicles) from CROSSING 42nd going up or downtown? The avenues will not be blocked.

And nothing prevents an emergency vehicles lane from existing ON 42nd alongside the LRT tracks.

Finally, 34th, not 42nd, is the major crosstown link from the Midtown to the Lincoln Tunnels.

My bad, but 42nd St is still used be many. Banning cars from there is not an option

italianstallion wrote:Uh, where does it say having an LRT on 42nd will prevent emergency vehicles or buses (or any other vehicles) from CROSSING 42nd going up or downtown? The avenues will not be blocked.

And nothing prevents an emergency vehicles lane from existing ON 42nd alongside the LRT tracks.

Finally, 34th, not 42nd, is the major crosstown link from the Midtown to the Lincoln Tunnels.

No the avenues won't be blocked but they might as well be. The vision 42 website says that there will be 40 LRT vehicles per hour. That means that a LRT vehicles will cross an avenue every 90 seconds going 15 mph. That sounds like a traffic jam on every avenue in rush hour. What if one train is late by 30 secs, that throws off the timed traffic signals, more mess. Pedestrians will still have to wait to cross the avenues, which they have to do now. And oh yeah we all know that 41st and 43rd streets are just as wide and spacious as 42nd so they could handle all the diverted traffic no problem(sarcasm), so crossing midtown will be a breeze!

OK, not bumping this thread for the ridiculous Vision42 nonsense, but instead because of an interesting turn in regards to the proposed subway station on the expanded 7 line at 10th & 42nd - Yes in my backyarders! (Yimbys - yeah, I stole that from subchat).

http://www.amny.com/news/local/transpor ... pheadlines

"Do it as you build the line or it will never get done otherwise," said Andrew Albert, a nonvoting rider representative on the MTA board.
Albert and the New York City Transit Riders Council are scheduled to hold a news conference Monday morning along with elected officials to demand the creation of the 41st Street station.
"Thousands of people live in the area. They deserve a station," Albert said. "Its an insult to watch the trains whiz by your neighborhood."

Now that's what we need more of - people supportive of subway expansion and new stations...

I was thinking: What if it went down 41st and used the area underneaththe bus terminal which is closed off as one of its hubs? Would that change anything? I still don't know if i see a point in all of this.

What part of the bus terminal is closed off? The lowest level I know of is the Greyhound/Peter Pan area and that place is ALWAYS busy, even at 3am. And what don't you see the point to?

If your walking down 8th into the south wing you pass an area of 41st at street level which passes under the bus terminal and is blocked off, maybe it would be an opportunity to build a LR hub into that area, but i'm still not sure if a new LR system pays (if its one right it maybe it could also be built to be within the current subway system and allow free transfers?)

Free transfers are already available between subway and bus via metrocard. About the closed section, you mean the street that kind of just disapears into the bus terminal and comes out the other side? How do you suggest accessing that street from the 8th Av side. LRT on 8th isn't going to work.