Mayor Bloomberg is trying to recruit a world-renowned Danish architect who wants to ban most cars from Times Square – and raise the price of street parking.
The Department of Transportation wants to hire as a consultant Jan Gehl, who has helped cities like London and Copenhagen create less congested urban areas by taking back the streets from cars – and giving top priority to pedestrians and bicyclists.
City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is negotiating with Gehl to help prepare a citywide master plan, part of Bloomberg's plaNYC initiative.
That includes such goals as reducing traffic and pollution, increasing mass transportation and ensuring that anyone can reach a park with just a 10-minute walk.
On Thursday, Bloomberg was in teeming Times Square to rally support for plaNYC and its congestion pricing component.
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Gehl spoke about Times Square and his vision for the city last winter when Sadik-Khan interviewed him for the New York Transportation Journal, a think-tank publication affiliated with New York University.
Times Square is “beyond the brink” with too many cars and pedestrians cramming into an inadequate amount of space, Gehl said.
“We could take all of the pedestrians out of Times Square or we could take some or most of the traffic out – whatever,” Gehl said. “I think that should be the strategy for reducing the vehicular traffic in this dense city.”
Bloomberg has proposed an $8 fee to enter Manhattan below 86th St. to raise funds to reduce pollution, improve mass transit and prepare for population growth.
“Another thing we can do is to reduce the number of parking spots,” Gehl said. “I would raise the price for parking right away.”
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The city also should consider taking parking off some avenues to transform them into tree-lined boulevards with wider sidewalks and outdoor cafes, he said.
“I question whether it is smart to have all this parking on the avenues which could instead be used for trees, benches and cafes,” he said.
Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan has run into some opposition in the city and Albany, but it has support from major civic and business organizations.
Critics fear it would shift traffic to neighborhoods around the toll zone and be a privacy intrusion. Enforcement would involve surveillance cameras capturing images of license plates.
Gehl completed a major study, “Toward a Fine City for People,” in June 2004, after London began congestion pricing, part of that city's effort to combat what Gehl has described as an invasion by automobiles.
Gehl also has done studies and reports for Melbourne, Australia. Since 1994, Melbourne has added squares, promenades and parks, doubled outdoor cafe seating and increased bike routes and mass transit, according to a 2004 study by Gehl's firm.
