It’s Officially Unanimous

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Even the Wall Street Journal is on board with the DOT’s new Summer Streets program. Check out what they had to say about the value of car-free streets:

“On three August Saturdays this summer, New Yorkers will be able to ride their bikes all the way from the BrooklynBridge to Central Park – a 6.9-mile route - without a single cabbie honking at them or absent-minded driver smashing them into a parked car.

This rare opportunity comes courtesy of the newly-launched “Summer Streets” program. For six hours, a major route running north and south along the island of Manhattan will be closed to traffic and opened up to walkers, cyclists, even outdoor yoga classes hosted by the gym chain Crunch Fitness.

That should provide temporary solace for many New York bike commuters who fight a daily, pitched battle with drivers who often don’t see or don’t like them.

The idea, says transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, is to get more New Yorkers thinking about using their 6,000 miles of roads for something other than cars. “We’re trying to get people to envision their streets differently,” she says. “You’ve got 600,000 people within a 20-minute bike ride of lower Manhattan.” But most of those people cram into subway cars, cabs, and even their own cars just to drive a couple of miles.

That’s because until now, she says, New York has done little to curb its car culture, and accommodate bikes and other modes of transportations on its roads. “That’s the one part of New York City that has undergone zero change,” says Ms. Sadik-Khan, who took over as transportation commissioner a year ago.

The star-studded press conference got all the attention, but Summer Streets is only a small part of the Ms. Sadik-Khan’s plan to “green” the city by reducing car traffic and increasing walking and biking for transportation. She says the police department is stepping up enforcement of cars double-parked in bike lanes, and new designated bikeways are planned before the end of the mayor’s final term in office, which ends in 2009.