Keep Your Cars out of Manhattan

Because that traffic you hate? It’s YOU!

Welp, it was lovely while it lasted but that’s all over now, baby blue, and ALL the cars are back. Maybe they’ll finally get that long-promised congestion pricing in place. Updated 6/9/21

Note: Now that our friend, the virus, has come to town our streets are delightfully free of cars and I vote that they stay that way!

Last week, after months of bickering in court, the powers that be decreed no more cars on 14th Street, a major east/west corridor. No personal cars, no taxis, no Ubers, nada.

And guess what?

The world did not end. Not only that, the surrounding streets are not jammed with all that traffic that can’t use 14th Street anymore. Know why? Because all it took was one day of complete madness for drivers to know to just not go there.

Walk around Soho or the Lower East Side or Greenwich Village or 125 Street up in Harlem any Saturday. And I say walk because if you’re dumb enough to bring your car to any of these neighborhoods on a weekend you are not going anywhere. You’ll be stuck in traffic with all the other people who thought driving into the city on Saturday would be such a great idea. And you’ll all be blowing your horns as if that’s going to help.

Over the past fifteen years or so there’s been a concerted effort to take the streets back from cars in Manhattan. Mayor Bloomberg got things rolling by blocking off major sections of Broadway and turning them into pedestrian malls with little tables and chairs. Admittedly uncomfortable tinny little chairs but it’s been a start.

Oh, the screaming and anguish that greeted each new area off-limits to cars.

And then when the predicted traffic-ggedon did not materialize, the city shrugged and went on about its business. Until the next time.

Recently the city has come to its senses regarding congestion-pricing and eventually anyone wanting to drive into the most heavily-trafficked areas of Manhattan will have to pay extra to do that. Predictably everyone who wants to drive their car to work every day or drive to run errands in Manhattan is having conniptions.

There is a mindset that says Cars Get To Go Wherever They Want.

Bullshit.

Manhattan is less than 23 square miles. San Francisco is less than 50. People, use your heads. There’s only so much of this area that can be paved over and used for your cars. Both cities have decent enough public transportation options that can only benefit from the continued removal of personal cars from our streets.

It’s criminal that so much of the world has become all but inaccessible except by personal automobile. If I had stayed in suburban Ohio I’d have no choice; I’d have to figure out how to afford to keep a money-guzzling car on the road. But I live where $127 a month can get me nearly anywhere in the five boroughs of New York City on buses and subways that run 24/7 (except on the weekends when maintenance is being done or when signals fail or when someone jumps in front of a subway, but other than that…).

So park your car in New Jersey or Staten Island or, hell, Connecticut and take the train into the city. Pretend you’re a real New Yorker and swipe that Metro card like you mean it.

© Remington Write 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Something to consider right after you buy your Metrocard: