AUGUST
27, 2007 --
*
In Frank Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella," the song
is:
"Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go
by."
(Note to LPR clicksters: the situation set forth below
is "invisible" [thank you Senator Clinton for
suggesting the term] to the media and our
politicians.)
LPR was on 14th Street in Manhattan, near 6th Avenue
August 19, at about 1:30 p.m. and saw traffic tied up
just east of the avenue.
|
6th
Street, North of 14th Street |
|
Street
Fairs are often the cause of traffic snarls … |
When
LPR got to the intersection, the problem became apparent: a Sunday
street fair filled the avenue north of the
intersection and vehicles approaching the intersection
had to veer onto 14th street, right or left.
|
Traffic
cleavage on 6th and 14th Streets |
|
Traffic
on 6th Street veering onto 14th Street |
|
Traffic
on 14th Street just west of 6th Street |
Sunday
street fairs are a regular occurrence in Manhattan from spring
through autumn, and TRAFFIC
CONGESTION occurs, generally, wherever these fairs are
located.
Other causes of TRAFFIC CONGESTION in Manhattan
include double-parked trucks, and work on or below
road surfaces.
|
East
126th Street |
|
9th
Avenue constrcution, near Lincoln Center |
|
LPR
has long believed that the city's Buszillas do not ease the traffic
flow -- not so long as cars are permitted on city thoroughfares.
|
Extra-long
Bus Stop … |
|
Resting
buses in the East Bronx |
LPR
would note, also, that cars coursed easily about city streets
during a cab strike, nearly forty years ago.
|
4th
Avenue Cab Convoy … |
LPR
was surprised to learn that the Bush
administration has approved some $350 million to study the feasibility of Mayor
Bloomberg's plan to impose an $8 charge on private cars that the venture below
96th Street in Manhattan, during working hours, Monday through Friday.
It is not clear to LPR how the charge will be imposed.
Will toll booths be set up that will likely create new TRAFFIC CONGESTION?
Will cars be required to sign up for E-Z pass, which will beam the charge as
vehicles cross the 96th Street line -- with E-Z pass beams set up at the bridges
and tunnels used by motorists from the four perimeter boroughs?
Indeed, will the mayor's plan renew calls to end the Greater New York City experiment
of 1898, and have The
Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens separate (or recombine, exclusive
of Manhattan)?
For LPR, if the mayor's plan to make permanent the second-class status of The
Boroughs Four is pursued, it should not be implemented with federal support.
If municipal traffic matters are not a municipal responsibility, what next --doing
away with state sovereignty?
|
At
6th and 14th Street, looking East |
Indeed, as
LPR saw police no officer or traffic agent at the 6th Avenue
and 14th Street intersection when a fire truck tried
to get through the street
fair-created
TRAFFIC CONGESTION, LPR recommends that rather than the Mayor's plan to tax
cars out of entering Manhattan -- the "TRAFFIC CONGESTION pricing"
term being an insult to our intelligence--Gov. Spitzer should call out
the National Guard to get traffic flowing through NYC.
And please note how a Buszilla encroached onto a 14th Street crosswalk
when it was at the bus stop on 14th
Street, just west of 6th Avenue. LPR has a hunch PVB would give a motorist
a summons for that kind of thing.
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|