Since late May, Avenue B has been closed to through traffic from Sixth Street to 14th Street (from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) ... as part of the city's Open Street plan to help residents get some fresh air while social distancing.
However, in recent weeks, we continue to hear reports about drivers moving the barricades to access the street... for instance...
Disappointing that angry drivers keep removing the barricades to our NYC open streets when local walkers, cyclists & kids are craving more outdoor space to safely distance. More of them than cars here, last I checked.
— Carlina Rivera åŠč¯å¨ (@CarlinaRivera) June 13, 2020
Grateful for grassroots enforcement đđŊ https://t.co/mnu7NK469t
... and most recently, a driver in a van broke the barricades that were up at 12th Street... EVG reader Russell K. shared these photos of the aftermath...
Updated 11 a.m.
Dave on 7th shared these from Seventh and B...
20 comments:
Every time I walk by I fix the barriers and move them back into place. I’ve also called 311 to report. My understanding is that the local precincts are supposed to be maintaining. They are working hard to keep 5th street closed by the precinct house, how about here?
Last time I walked down the closed-off sections of Avenue B on a Saturday night, I had to move onto the sidewalk to get out of the way of three tuned muscle cars with Jersey plates that were weaving around the barriers and seemed particularly impatient of pedestrians. It's safe to say that this was probably not local traffic.
What I don't know is whether these particular asshats are regular visitors to the city and we just wouldn't notice them amid all the other traffic in normal times, or if they made a special point of coming over so that they could drive on Manhattan's mostly-empty streets. Whatever the case, they didn't really seem to be entering into the spirit of the initiative that gives priority to pedestrians on certain streets.
@ 7:59am
Well, technically, the street’s only blocked off until 8pm, isn’t it? I’d personally like it closed off for longer, but if they were outside the closed hours they were within their rights to access the road.
Of course, we probably only need a couple of these barrier-breaking stories for DiBlasio to decide that we need cops at every intersection again, and therefore can’t have closed streets, period.
Do we get to keep the closed streets as we enter Phase 2?
These barricades haven't been maintained since after the first few days. With each passing day they have be come increasingly broken and hazardous to pedestrians and drivers alike. At this point, they have become universally ignored by drivers. Either post a traffic officer or get rid of them. Someone is going to be injured soon.
On paper this may have seemed like a good idea but it would probably have been better suited to weekends only. There are small and struggling businesses on Ave B which need deliveries on weekdays. I seldom see much foot traffic on B outside of weekends.
Giving priority to pedestrians is a great idea in these times. More city streets should be closed to vehicles all the time. But if you are expecting the police department to bother with this issue you had better get out on the street and start protesting the protesters who want to defund and dismantle the NYPD. If you want laws to be enforced then you need a force to enforce the laws. You can't have it both ways.
Yeah this didn't work out so well. Last Saturday afternoon, I tried twice to walk in the street between 7th and 10th, only to be honked at or sped past by impatient drivers who, surprise surprise, had to end up waiting at the next red light anyways. Didn't seem safe for peds or cyclists at all.
The whole "open street" plan has been a joke. The closed streets are either ones you'd never use (Park Ave @ 33rd) or situations like Ave B where drivers just don't care. And as the first commenter said, NYPD has been working hard to keep 5th street barricaded for their own personal use, so why can't they be bothered to enforce this?
Are you kidding - NJ will be here tonite to party on St Marks and Ave A. And sell drugs!
I'm really sad about this. Average NYPD cop drives in here from Long Island, where they have a backyard and space, and they couldn't care less about our local communities and having a little extra space to spread out in the summer. Walked by their 5th st blockade just this morning; 7 cops manning it on just one side of the block. They just protect their personal cars at this point & apparently think there's nothing more important to do while they're being paid by NYC taxpayers. One day I was setting the Ave B barriers up, since it was 8.30am already and they were still on the side, and asked cops sitting in a car on a side street to help. They laughed at me.
If Avenue B is part of the city's Open Street plan from 8AM to 8PM, why are the barricades still blocking the street at 11PM every night?
Open streets allow deliveries
Let me ask an obvious question: Can these barricades be replaced by the metal ones the NYPD uses (such as in Times Square on New Year's Eve)? That might make drivers think twice.
I walk the dog every day on B from 14th at least down to Tompkins. not a day goes by that a driver doesn’t zoom through. It’s just not safe for me to walk in the street. It’s a shame, since it was nice to spread out for a few days.
That Avenue B closure is as much of a joke as the so-called Bike lanes. Everyday they're blocked by vehicles, mostly delivery trucks and the like. Thankfully traffic is light and you can use the street. Nobody in the government cares about the local residents and our everyday lives.
Moving them to carefully access the block and then putting it back is fine by me and one thing - breaking it or flying through and not even going in the neighborhood is not cool.
Hey @ 1:30 local residents use cars too. People breaking these or not traveling carefully are very much most likely not local residents. And unfortunately yes, bike lanes are still the side of the road so in a city like this you have ton expect to share it. So go around them. I bike almost everyday and it's OK, the problem is only if someone swerves in or steps in. Anything else, just go around it - it's the side of the road.
One thing I've recognized as a pedestrian from day 1 in this city is: drivers gonna drive. If you're a pedestrian and value your life, you have to avoid cars and let them pass.
Likewise, it amuses me to observe that I had been social-distancing from well before this pandemic was even a thing. People on the street also need elbow-room, and I'm not going to fight them for it.
On June 19, at 1:00 PM, Anonymous said:
Nobody in the government cares about the local residents and our everyday lives.
Well, duh.
Time to get all these cars off the street. Congestion pricing is a good start; all the money generated should go to mass transit. Also, all this free parking should be phased out. Why should cars get to take up a small studio-sized public space that could be used for the public good, like parks and green spaces. Cars generate a lot of pollution, as well as noise- not conducive to a densely packed city.
A big problem with these barricades was the fire trucks had a hard time getting through. Several times I saw fire trucks trying to get around these things and of course having to move them out-of-the way without a then putting them back in place.
To the extent that Open Streets got people to space out a little more I guess the idea was a good one, but the various locations were so random that most people never took advantage of it. On the other hand Summer Streets attracts huge crowds, but that’s a problem now that we have coronavirus, So I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Summer Streets might also be canceled too.
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