Last night's Tony winners aren't the only newsmakers on Broadway these days. In May DOT quietly rolled out plans to give the city's premier north-south thoroughfare the livable streets treatment from Times Square to Herald Square (between 42nd and 35th Streets). The redesign replaces two car travel lanes with pedestrian plazas and a protected bike lane.
Seems like another too-good-to-be-true improvement, but it's for real. Check out specifics here: PDF.
Word is the 42nd to 35th Street design, which looks to have been developed in cooperation with the Times Square Alliance Business Improvement District, will be implemented this summer. Meanwhile, a few blocks south, reclamation work is underway around Madison Square Park, as previewed in remarks from Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and promised in DOT's Sustainable Streets plan.
What with all the changes on Broadway and the debut of New York's own Ciclovía (more coverage coming soon), it looks like it's going to be a boffo summer.
Broadway ped plaza details after the jump.