Ban Cars From Major Midtown Roads During Coronavirus: Advocates

NEW YORK, NY — Major Midtown Manhattan streets that are closed each year for events such as New York City's Car-Free Day, Summer Streets and the Marathon should be closed off to cars as the city encourages residents to engage in social distancing efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus, safe streets advocacy groups said in a statement Monday.

Advocates with Bike New York and Transportation Alternatives have come up with a list of dozens of city streets that they say should become pedestrian and cyclist-only open spaces so that New Yorkers can spread out when they get fresh air during a statewide stay-at-home order.

The list of suggestions, which the groups sent to the city's Department of Transportation, comes after Gov. Andrew Cuomo asked city officials to send him a plan to combat the "wholly inappropriate" density he said was rampant this weekend in New York City.

Cuomo suggested closing city streets to traffic to give New Yorkers more space to spread out, but he said he would leave that decision up to local officials.

"As we heard Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio say this weekend, New York City's parks and sidewalks are filled with people trying to get some exercise and fresh air -- so full that it is proving difficult to adhere to social distancing guidelines in some places," the groups' representatives said Monday.

If officials were to take up the suggestions the following streets could be closed: Broadway between Times Square and Union Square, Park Avenue between East 72nd Street and the Brooklyn Bridge, First Avenue between the Queensboro Bridge and 135th Street and large stretches of Fifth Avenue and Central Park West near Central Park.

In addition to those major routes, advocates are also suggesting that cars be banned from streets that often host street fairs, have active block associations that plan community events and streets in neighborhoods without access to many parks. Opening up the streets to pedestrians will make it easier for people to spend time outdoors, which is still allowed for exercise and to get fresh air, without invading the space of others.

Here's a full list of their suggestions:

• Zones around hospitals, with vehicular access only for emergency vehicles and hospital staff
• The New York City Marathon route
• Streets routinely closed for Summer Streets and the annual Car-Free Day
• NYC Street Fair Routes (2020 calendar here)
• Streets with robust block associations and histories of block parties
• Streets typically closed as part of the Play Streets program
• Streets in neighborhoods not within walking distance of a park (map here)

Streets that lack directly adjacent commercial or residential land uses:

• 73rd Avenue and Francis Lewis Boulevard within Cunningham Park
• Forest Park Drive
• 164th Street within Kissena Park
• Shore Boulevard within Astoria Park
• Crotona Avenue and Claremont Avenue within Crotona Park
• Jackie Robinson Parkway
• East Fordham Road between the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo
• Mosholu Parkway in Van Cortlandt Park
• Bay Street in Red Hook
• Lorimer Street within McCarren Park
• Margaret Corbin Drive within Fort Tryon Park
• Roadways within Latourette Park