SUMMER STREETS, TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES

Today was the first weekend of the three consecutive August 2009 weekends when Summer Streets is in effect in Manhattan.  This is the second year of the Department of Transportation initiative to experiment with different ways of managing density and traffic.  The experiment last year was a surprise- it felt strange,  a memorable gift.  Cycling up Park Avenue South towards Grand Central Station amidst a million cyclists, pedestrians, strollers, skaters, wheelchairs, runners, segueways and human scale movement, the idea seems like a natural right, a logical way to enjoy the city as part of a city wide mandate.  The city cannot take this away now that it has made New Yorkers taste the pleasures of the upper concourse at Grand Central Station terminal vehicular bridge.  New York City has opened up its arteries in new ways.  Even if New York hasnt found the right calibration for congestion pricing, the suspension of traffic all the way up to Central Park presents arguements for continuing certain healthful habits created as a result of the suspension of vehicular traffic.  If New York is growing to swell beyond its 8 million people within the near future, it is going to have to look to other ways of transportation and commuting.  Along with serious considerations of energy consumption and health management.  Cycling as a means of moving around cities opens up that possibility in a serious way and New York City is cautiously experimenting with that alternative opportunity.