BANNING CARS FROM MANHATTAN
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BANNING CARS FROM MANHATTAN*
Percival and Paul Goodman
We propose the ban- cars are simply not worth the nuisance
ning of all cars from Manhattan Is- they cause. Less than 15 per cent of
land, except buses, small taxis, vehicles those daily entering Manhattan south
for essential services (doctor, police, of 61st Street come by private car.
sanitation, vans, etc.), and the truck- The traffic is congested, speed is slow,
ing used in light industry. parking is difficult and increasingly
The present situation is intolerable expensive. It is estimated that the cost
and all other proposed solutions of of new garaging is $20,000 per car;
it are uneconomic, disruptive, un- and parking lots are a poor use of
healthy, non-urban or impractical. land in the heart of a metropolis as
With this diminution of traffic, we well as disruptive of the urban city-
can, except in certain areas, close off scape.
nearly four out of five cross-town The advantages of our proposal are
streets and every second north-south very great. Important, and immediate,
avenue. These closed roads plus the are the relief of tension, noise and
space now used for off-street parking anxiety; purifying the air of fumes
will give us a great fund of land for and smog; alleviating the crowding
neighborhood planning and relocation. of pedestrians; the safety of children.
(At present over 35 per cent of the Subsequently, and no less importantly,
area of Manhattan is taken up by the we gain the opportunity of diversify-
roads.) Instead of the present grid, we ing the gridiron, beautifying the city
can aim at various kinds of enclosed and designing a more integrated com-
neighborhoods, in approximately 1200 munity life. (The expense of an oner-
to 1600-foot superblocks. However, it ous requirement of the Building Code
would be convenient to leave the ex- for off-street parking could, of course,
isting street-pattern in the main down- be dropped.)
town shopping and business area, in
the financial district, and wherever the THE PROBLEM and our solution are
access for trucks and service cars is probably unique to Manhattan, though
imperative. Our aim is to enhance our experiment would provide lessons
immensely the quality of our city life, elsewhere. Manhattan is a world center
with the minimum of disruption of of business, buying, style, entertain-
the existing pattern. ment, publishing, politics and light
The disadvantages of our radical manufacture. It is daily visited in
proposal are small. At present, the throngs by commuters to work, seekers
of pleasure, shoppers, visitors on busi-
* This article will appear also in Pro- ness, and tourists. We have, and need,
gram, published by the Columbia Uni-
versity School of Architecture. a dense population; the area is small
304A ten-block area. Densify 300-400 to acre. The streets turned into service roads which
are also pedestrian walks.
Former traffic area = Avenue: 100' x 1240' -- 124,000
4 Streets: 1200' x 240' = 288,000
412,000 sq. ft.
Gross area ten blocks -- 1,612,000 sq. ft. We have added 25 per cent to the usable area.
!. Ne|ghborhood shopping and center. IV. Housing with School |n lower floors.
II. Flay and recreation areas. V. Non-nuisance factories.
III. Swimm;ng pool. VI. Bridge bldg.--office or apartment usage.
Balance is housing for various incomes--some new, some old.
305and strictly limited. Because of this, the proposed forty-story residential
Manhattan can easily be a place as buildings of the Downtown-Lower
leisurely as Venice. It can be a lovely Manhattan Association show the way.
pedestrian city, for it does not sprawl It might be feasible to establish a
In the first appendix to Communitas, municipal agency to facili,tate people's
we developed a scheme for Manhattan living near their work q they so choose,
paying especial attention to improving by arranging exchanges oI residence
the rivers and developing riverside advantageous to all parties. This should
neighborhoods (routing traffic up be possible in many thousands of cases;
through the center). We now believe it is certainly worth trying.
that a first and easy step toward achiev- (This kind of simple expedient is
ing a livable city is the elimination of just what our society usually neglects.
most of the traffic altogether. There is no agency in the city to at-
Manhattan has been losing popula- tend to the multi-purpose problems
tion to the suburbs and near country- of community, the integration of the
side with increase of daily commuta- functions of life. Cf. Communitas, Ap-
tion. A more spacious and desirable pendix C.)
center would reduce, perhaps stop this
trend. And, within the city itself, it is 2. Peripheral Parking
possible to decrease commutation. T h e The banned private cars can be ac-
I L G W U Housing at 34th Street and commodated by various kinds of peri-
306pheral parking. The idea of peripheral destrian walks which also act as roads
parking has been studied by Louis for necessary servicing (fire, garbage,
Kahn and Victor Gruen, as well as the mail, etc.).
present authors. The proposed grid of through ar-
At present many thousands of cars teries is such that the maximum walk
of commuters are left at suburban to the nearest bus stop would always
railway stops and at more or less con- be less than a fifth of a mile. Subway
venient subway stations in Queens, entrances would exist as at present.
Brooklyn and the Bronx. This is be- In general, the bus service throughout
cause of the obvious undesirability, Manhattan would be expanded, bring-
from the motorist's point of view, of ing back the 2-deck buses. We must
driving them into Manhattan. We pro- keep in mind that with the ending of
pose simply to generalize this common- congestion and the immense cutting
sense decision in order to use it as a down of pedestrian crossing, the speed
basis for important further advantages. Iimit for taxis and express buses could
We propose, in addition, the con- be raised to 25 or even 30 miles an
struction of multi-purpose piers in the hour. (Since there would be much
Hudson and East Rivers for parking less need to cross over, it would be
cars entering at the main bridges and possible to eliminate jay-walking, and
tunnels. These piers could be devel- perhaps provide pedestrian bridges
oped for promenade, recreational and and tunnels.) On the whole, given the
even residential use and might be con- improvement of the bus-service, most
sidered as part of the river develop- travel about town would be swifter
ment recommended in Communitas. and more convenient than at present
These piers would be served by bus with the private cars.
and taxi. Consider a particular case. There would be more taxis. Most
A large store, e.g., Macy's, might pro- of these should be small (half the
vide pier-limousines for commuting present length by eliminating trunk
shoppers, including the service of de- space, placing motor under rear seat).
livering packages to the parked cars. It seems absurd for the taxis in a
limited speed metropolis to be the
3. Roads same cars designed for travel on super-
We would keep the broad and highly highways. Best would be electrics.
commercial cross-streets, 14th, 23rd, The remaining gridiron plan of
42nd, 57th, 59th, etc., as two-way bus Manhattan is kept; it is practical and
and taxi arteries; and also 1st, 3rd, when simplified it has a sort of gran-
5th, 7th, Broadway, 9th and 11th deur. But to avoid the boredom of
Avenues. These should provide ade- nothing but endless vistas we recom-
quate circulation for the residual traf- mend bridging certain streets with
fic. (As indicated above, we would buildings to create other spatial effects.
keep the existent street pattern in the Every street and avenue represents an
individual artistic problem.
midtown section—from 23rd to 59th
Streets—to serve the shops, theaters, 4. Neighborhood and Community
etc., and also wherever there is a In the long run, the most valuable
special case. Every street would have ideal for New York or any other vast
to be studied individually.) city is to become a large collection of
All other streets would become pe- integral neighborhoods sharing a met-
307ropolitan center and metropolitan Toward the ideal of such a city of amenities. The neighborhoods differ federated communities, the simple de- since they comprise a wide variety of vice of banning the cars and replan- community functions, administered ning the gridiron is a major step. The with relative independence by each new road-pattern allows for super- neighborhood. Certainly they would blocks of from six to nine acres. (Stuy- not look alike. Consider, for example, vesant Town covers sixteen acres.) that a basically family-residential With plastic invention and aiming at neighborhood might have a quite au- the maximum variety of landscaping, tonomous control of its local school, land use and building height, there is with a certain amount of the neighbor- here an unexampled opportunity for hood school-money administered by the dozens of eventual solutions that could local Parents-Teachers Association. surpass in urbaneness and amenity the The central Board of Education could squares and crescents of 18th Century dictate minimum standards and see to London. There is space for recreation it that underprivileged neighborhoods and play. (The length of a tennis get a fair cut of the revenue, but it court fits across 9th Avenue; an occa- need not stand in the way (as it does sional corner is big enough for a soft- at present) of variation and experi- ball field.) Given the large fund of mentation. Our idea, too, is that local newly available land, now wasted on exercise of political initiative on local largely unnecessary and always incon- problems like schooling, housing and venient traffic and parking, it is pos- planning, would immensely heighten sible to develop neighborhoods in a the level of the electorate. A neighbor• leisurely fashion, with careful study hood should be planned to increase and with no problems of relocation mutual acquaintance of the neighbors or dislocation of such neighborhood and to give them responsibility for ties as still exist. We would especially the school, market, playground; and recommend competitions and public such a complex could well serve as referenda, in order to avoid bureau- the primary municipal electoral unit. cratic imposition and to educate the Meantime, all the integral neighbor- community to awareness and concern. hoods share in the great city of the big shops, theaters, hotels, museums S. Means, etc. and national enterprises. The aim of The legal problem of the proposed integral planning is to create a human- ban should not be difficult. Streets are scale community intermediary between at present closed off for play and other the individuals and families and the purposes. The Mayor banned all traf- metropolis; it is to counteract the iso- fic in the emergency of snow clearance lation of the individual in the mass- (though his right to do so has been megalopolis. Naturally, in a vast region disputed). We have had a vehicle tax; like New York there will be many it could be so pegged as to be pro- thousands of persons who choose pre- hibitive. A prohibitive entry fee could cisely to be isolated individuals—that be charged. might be why they came here—but The ban should, of course, be leni- these too form a distinctive and valu- ently enforced to allow for special able element in the federal whole, and cases and emergency use (e.g., a fam- they can be provided for in the center ily starting out on a trip and loading and in sub-neighborhoods. up). Likewise there must be provision KII]
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310for cars to pass over Manhattan, go- things more efficiently, but it opens
ing east and west. the possibility to think about ideal
It is likely that the ban on cars solutions, human values and new ways
could be lifted on weekends, when the to do basic things. In general, most
truck and bus traffic is much dimin- big-scale planning and most of what
ished. Especially during the warm passes for Urban Renewal are human-
months this would be a great conveni- ly indifferent. The quality of life in
ence for week-end trips. our city will not be improved by such
planning, but by some elementary so-
6. Conclusion cial psychiatry and common sense.
The above proposal is simple common Finally, conceive that one of our
sense. The cars have caused many mayoral candidates were convinced of
and increasingly severe ills, so that the advantages of this proposal and
the situation is admittedly reaching a made it a part of his program in
crisis. The proposed solutions—new running for office. This is hard to con-
traffic regulations, new highways, multi. ceive, because it is just such concrete
levels, underground parking—all bear issues that are never offered to the
the typical earmark of American plan- voters; the voters never have real
ning: to alleviate an evil by remedies choices to think about, therefore they
that soon increase the evil. But in this never learn to think. Instead they vote
special case of Manhattan, the ele- for personalities and according to eth-
mentary radical remedy, of getting rid nic and party groupings; whereas the
of the cars, would cause very little rival programs are both vague and
hardship and have immense and beau- identical.
tiful advantages. (In sprawling cities If, however, such a plan as this were
like Los Angeles or Cleveland, of offered as an important issue, our
course, one cannot get rid of the cars.) guess is that the candidate would lose
To anyone interested in community this year, because he would be con-
planning, the chief advantage of our sidered radical and irresponsible; and
proposal is that it provides oppor- he would win next time around, when
tunity. It does not merely remedy an people had had a chance to think it
evil or provide a way to do the same through and see that it made sense.
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