Monday, April 18, 2011

New traffic lights for Cooper Square

During the weekend, we noticed that someone had covered the crosswalks around Cooper Square... thinking perhaps that it was some sort of art project or prank...


Then a reader noted that these were new traffic/pedestrian lights ... Oh, duh. Right! We took a look at a Google image and a photo from a few weeks ago...



Sure enough... New!




A good idea seeing as this can be a treacherous intersection... plus, we'll something here to help guide traffic once developer Arun Bhatia puts up a new dorm or condo here on the corner of Sixth Street...

3 comments:

Roger_Paw said...

Ah... of course! Crossing 6th Street while walking south can be pretty hairy. I'd always thought there should be some kind of lighting there. Nice!

Anonymous said...

The traffic lights are all active...Very happy to see taht as it is now much safer to cross the streets here. Traffic noise is substantially reduced also, as vehicles must now drive slower.

Also all the traffic has been reconfigured! A large triangular work area has been closed off, and southbound vehicle traffic is being rerouted around the triangle. Is this the beginning of work for the Cooper pedestrian plaza?

http://inhabitat.com/new-york-citys-astor-place-to-become-a-green-pedestrian-dream/

- East Villager

Anonymous said...

I must amend my earlier comment. Traffic noise was initially reduced due to lower driving speeds. However, since traffic was reconfigured here, the incessant horn-blowing is much worse, especially on weekend nights. One can often hear as many as five or more horns blowing at once.

What can be done about this? Isn't the law in NYC that horn blowing is only for life-threatening emergency situations? Yet I never see anyone ticketed for blowing their horns gratuitously.

- East Villager