<story><title>Downside of Lower Manhattan’s Boom: It’s Too Crowded</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/nyregion/lower-manhattan-crowding.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ghaff</author><text>Except the residents (and workers) use taxis, Ubers, black cars, etc. And, as the article notes, the local businesses need to get deliveries, repair people, etc. I would guess the issue doesn&amp;#x27;t come so much from owners&amp;#x27; private cars traveling through the area.&lt;p&gt;I was adding that I made the mistake of passing through Times Square on my way to some destination a number of months back. As in the article, you literally could not walk on the sidewalk which was effectively blocked by the mass of people. Times Square (like areas of downtown) is an extreme example, but things do get really crowded. (And you can&amp;#x27;t just do away with road traffic there. You&amp;#x27;re at intersection of two major N-S avenues.)</text></item><item><author>baron816</author><text>Residents aren&amp;#x27;t the ones with cars. No one in this area own a car.</text></item><item><author>jinushaun</author><text>I think getting rid of cars isn&amp;#x27;t going to fix the problems the people in this article are complaining about. It&amp;#x27;s the age old problem that plague all popular cities around the world: tourists versus residents. And having visited places like Florence, Paris and Barcelona, I&amp;#x27;d rather see the residents get their way.</text></item><item><author>philipov</author><text>Getting rid of cars is a feature, not a bug.</text></item><item><author>BorisMelnik</author><text>Have you seen the streets in lower Manhattan? If they get any narrower there wouldnt be any room for cars. There are also already tons of bike lanes. Most New Yorker&amp;#x27;s don&amp;#x27;t drive - they walk, bike, take the train, or taxi&amp;#x2F;uber. Don&amp;#x27;t you think if the answers were this simple someone would have done this already?</text></item><item><author>TulliusCicero</author><text>&amp;gt; Just to get to his apartment in the financial district, he has to contend with hordes of commuters and selfie-snapping tourists clogging narrow sidewalks.&lt;p&gt;So make the sidewalks wider. I can think of nowhere in the US more appropriate to allocate more space to sidewalks than Manhattan.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Ms. Starr, for one, has all but stopped using the Citi Bike system to commute. She used to ride from her apartment in TriBeCa to her office on Maiden Lane in the financial district nearly every day. But as more pedestrians and cyclists filled the streets, she had to concentrate to avoid running into anyone or being run into.&lt;p&gt;Sounds like they need separated bike lanes then.&lt;p&gt;Manhattan is the densest major city* in the country. The amount of space allocated to cars on the roads should be the bare minimum: enough for emergency vehicles, business deliveries, surface transit, the handicapped, a limited number of taxis. With only a tiny amount of space per person, you really have to push for denser forms of transportation. Personal vehicle use should be at a minimum in Manhattan.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In Lower Manhattan, people are not the only obstacle. Construction on streets and buildings is everywhere. A labyrinth of imposing metal scaffolding hems in available walkways and forces pedestrians closer together, or into the street.&lt;p&gt;The solution here is to cut into space on the road to provide more walking space.&lt;p&gt;* I know it&amp;#x27;s only part of a city but you know what I mean</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>baron816</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m ok with having cars drive through the area. I just don&amp;#x27;t approve of people leaving them idle on the street. Taxis, Ubers, and black cars aren&amp;#x27;t parking. Delivery trucks are stopping, but only for a few minutes. A third (or more) of the street space is devoted to vehicles that aren&amp;#x27;t in use. Those cars could be placed in garages or parked on the street in another part of town where the owner can subway to where they&amp;#x27;re going.&lt;p&gt;Ideally, streets would be used only by pedestrians, but I acknowledge that&amp;#x27;s not feasible.</text></comment>
<story><title>Downside of Lower Manhattan’s Boom: It’s Too Crowded</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/nyregion/lower-manhattan-crowding.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ghaff</author><text>Except the residents (and workers) use taxis, Ubers, black cars, etc. And, as the article notes, the local businesses need to get deliveries, repair people, etc. I would guess the issue doesn&amp;#x27;t come so much from owners&amp;#x27; private cars traveling through the area.&lt;p&gt;I was adding that I made the mistake of passing through Times Square on my way to some destination a number of months back. As in the article, you literally could not walk on the sidewalk which was effectively blocked by the mass of people. Times Square (like areas of downtown) is an extreme example, but things do get really crowded. (And you can&amp;#x27;t just do away with road traffic there. You&amp;#x27;re at intersection of two major N-S avenues.)</text></item><item><author>baron816</author><text>Residents aren&amp;#x27;t the ones with cars. No one in this area own a car.</text></item><item><author>jinushaun</author><text>I think getting rid of cars isn&amp;#x27;t going to fix the problems the people in this article are complaining about. It&amp;#x27;s the age old problem that plague all popular cities around the world: tourists versus residents. And having visited places like Florence, Paris and Barcelona, I&amp;#x27;d rather see the residents get their way.</text></item><item><author>philipov</author><text>Getting rid of cars is a feature, not a bug.</text></item><item><author>BorisMelnik</author><text>Have you seen the streets in lower Manhattan? If they get any narrower there wouldnt be any room for cars. There are also already tons of bike lanes. Most New Yorker&amp;#x27;s don&amp;#x27;t drive - they walk, bike, take the train, or taxi&amp;#x2F;uber. Don&amp;#x27;t you think if the answers were this simple someone would have done this already?</text></item><item><author>TulliusCicero</author><text>&amp;gt; Just to get to his apartment in the financial district, he has to contend with hordes of commuters and selfie-snapping tourists clogging narrow sidewalks.&lt;p&gt;So make the sidewalks wider. I can think of nowhere in the US more appropriate to allocate more space to sidewalks than Manhattan.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Ms. Starr, for one, has all but stopped using the Citi Bike system to commute. She used to ride from her apartment in TriBeCa to her office on Maiden Lane in the financial district nearly every day. But as more pedestrians and cyclists filled the streets, she had to concentrate to avoid running into anyone or being run into.&lt;p&gt;Sounds like they need separated bike lanes then.&lt;p&gt;Manhattan is the densest major city* in the country. The amount of space allocated to cars on the roads should be the bare minimum: enough for emergency vehicles, business deliveries, surface transit, the handicapped, a limited number of taxis. With only a tiny amount of space per person, you really have to push for denser forms of transportation. Personal vehicle use should be at a minimum in Manhattan.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In Lower Manhattan, people are not the only obstacle. Construction on streets and buildings is everywhere. A labyrinth of imposing metal scaffolding hems in available walkways and forces pedestrians closer together, or into the street.&lt;p&gt;The solution here is to cut into space on the road to provide more walking space.&lt;p&gt;* I know it&amp;#x27;s only part of a city but you know what I mean</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>imgabe</author><text>Part of the problem is a lack of alleys, so delivery trucks have to park in the street and block traffic. If zoning required an off-street loading dock area for all buildings it would start to help as new buildings are built. I&amp;#x27;m not sure if that&amp;#x27;s a rule or not.</text></comment>