The archive · Public & Social · Strategic decision · 2009–2010
NYC DOT tests a car-free Times Square with paint and chairs — the data keeps it (2009)
NYC DOT closed Broadway at Times and Herald Squares with temporary paint and chairs, measured the results for months — then made the pilot permanent in 2010.
New York City Department of Transportation
What it had to solve
Broadway cut diagonally across Manhattan's grid, creating notoriously congested and dangerous intersections at Times and Herald Squares; Times Square saw 2.37 times more pedestrian crashes than other area avenues. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan proposed closing Broadway to cars, a change few believed could speed up Midtown traffic.
How it works
For decades Broadway's diagonal slash across Manhattan's grid made Times and Herald Squares two of the city's most congested and dangerous intersections; Times Square alone saw 2.37 times more pedestrian crashes than other avenues in the area. In February 2009 Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a plan to close Broadway to cars, and Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan set out to prove that an idea few believed could work actually could.
The creative move was to run the change as a cheap, reversible experiment rather than a multi-year capital project. On Memorial Day weekend 2009 the city routed Broadway traffic off seven blocks, replaced lanes with paint, planters, barriers and movable chairs and tables, and committed to judging the result against measurable criteria over months — taxi GPS data from 1.1 million trips, field travel-time runs, and NYPD crash statistics, all compared against an East Midtown control district.
The measurements surprised the skeptics. Taxi speeds in West Midtown rose 7 percent overall and 17 percent northbound; injuries to motorists and passengers in the project area fell 63 percent and pedestrian injuries 35 percent; pedestrian activity along Broadway and Seventh Avenue rose 11 percent. A Times Square Alliance survey found 76 percent of New Yorkers and 68 percent of retail managers wanted the plazas made permanent.
In February 2010 Bloomberg and Sadik-Khan announced the Green Light for Midtown pilot would stay, adding more than 2.5 acres of public space. The temporary paint and chairs were eventually replaced by a $55 million permanent redesign by Snøhetta, completed in time for New Year 2014 — and the pilot-first method became a studied model for making large street changes tangible and winning public support.
Why it lands
- Temporary materials let the city act within months instead of the years a capital project needs, so the public judged the real street rather than a rendering.
- The city committed to measurable criteria up front — taxi GPS, travel-time runs, crash data and a control district — so the debate ran on numbers rather than anecdotes.
- Keeping the experiment reversible lowered political risk: skeptics were told it was a test, and evidence arrived before any permanent money was spent.
- Removing Broadway's diagonal simplified the intersections — shorter crosswalks, reconnected Seventh Avenue — which is what produced both the safety and mobility gains.
- Publishing results with an East Midtown control made the improvements credible enough to turn early skepticism into majority support.
What it did
West Midtown taxi speeds rose 7 percent overall and 17 percent northbound; injuries to motorists and passengers fell 63 percent and pedestrian injuries 35 percent; pedestrian volumes in Times Square rose 11 percent. Surveys found 76 percent of New Yorkers and 68 percent of area retail managers wanted the plazas kept.
What you can take
When a change is contested, run it as a cheap, reversible experiment with named measurements: people can judge the real street, and the numbers can win what argument could not.
Since then
Green Light for Midtown became permanent in February 2010, creating more than 2.5 acres of public space at Times and Herald Squares. Business followed pedestrians: Sadik-Khan later cited a 71 percent rise in Times Square revenues, and pedestrian volumes stayed up 11 percent as the area became the city's second most expensive retail district. In time for New Year 2014, a $55 million redesign by Snøhetta replaced the temporary paint and chairs with granite benches and custom pavers. A 2011 MIT thesis studied the provisional approach as a way to build public support for big street changes.
Sources
- Mayor Bloomberg, Transportation Commissioner Sadik-Khan Announce 'Green Light for Midtown' Project Will Be Made Permanent
- Design For Permanent Times Square Plazas Released
- Lawn Chairs in Times Square: An Analysis of the Pilot Streets Program and the Provisional Project Approach (MCP thesis)
- Snohetta Makes Times Square Permanently Pedestrian
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