Manhattan Light Rail

The New York Times has a story today on a radical idea to close Manhattan's main crosstown thoroughfare to cars and build a light rail system to carry people across the island.

It's the brainchild of an organization called Vision 42, a non-profit citizens' group formed in 1999 by the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility.

The idea is part of a proposal to turn 42nd Street into a pedestrian mall and replace all the vehicle traffic with public transportation linking the 39th Street ferry terminal on the Hudson River on the West Side with the 36th Street ferry terminal on the East River. The plan is being promoted on the Clear Channel billboard in Times Square on Broadway between 46th and 47th Streets.

Anyone who lives in and around New York City knows all too well the agony of trying to cross the city at rush hour -- or at any hour -- either by bus or car. And the subway doesn't offer much help because it only goes as far as Ninth Avenue on the West and Lexington Avenue on the East. The light rail proposition, which would cost about $500 million, would cut the travel time from 40 minutes to about 20.

"The real gain here is you could handle three times as many people with roughly the same cost," George Haikalis, an engineer who serves as a co-chairman of Vision 42 told the Times. "A lot of people have expressed interest in this, but have not signed on, because they’re awaiting interest from Mayor Bloomberg."

But Bloomberg's office doesn't support the plan. The mayor wants to move forward with the extension of the 7th Avenue subway to connect Times Square with the Hudson Yards area on the West Side. According to the Times, that project was projected to cost $2.1 billion back in 2005 -- more than four times the cost of the light rail proposition. And it won't even extend the full width of Manhattan.

Vision 42 is determined to get the word out about the light rail proposition. The group commissioned a study that found almost 400 properties along 42nd Street would see their property value increase a total of 4 percent and that the added pedestrian traffic would add up to $380 million in additional for sales for retail stores along the street.

Even though it's hard to imagine such a radical plan actually coming to life in a city as... um... unprogressive as New York, don't forget, parts of Times Square have been converted to pedestrian-only areas. Change is possible.

Photo by Darragh Worland.