Caption Contest: Time to Expand Car-Free Broadway [Updated]

times_square_inferno.jpgJust another day at 53rd and Seventh. Photo: Gawker.

Hey, here’s some of that pulse-pounding New York City energy that a few people wish we still had in the middle of Times Square.

Instead of propelling a vehicle through midtown streets, the energy embedded in this taxi’s tankful of gasoline has been converted into giant fireballs, molten metal, and a black cloud of vaporized God-knows-what. City Room reports that, thankfully, there were no injuries, and in fact, no one really batted an eye. ("This was routine," said the FDNY spokesman.) I guess we’re just more accustomed to the sight of exploding taxis than people sitting outside on chairs, talking to each other. Gawker has another pic of the taxi after further combustion.

Captions?

Update: Here’s some video, also via Gawker. I’m declaring the winner of the caption contest to be "curly" — nice TerraPass reference.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Caption Contest: Anthony Weiner on a Citi Bike

By Ben Fried |
I don’t care if this is a carefully choreographed photo op. For one day, at least, we’re not going to run a picture of the Weinermobile in a post about Anthony Weiner. We’re just going to link back to the most recent post with a Weinermobile picture. And we’re going to turn this into a […]

The New York of 2016 Needs the Wide, Generous Sidewalks of 1906

By Ben Fried |
The Times ran a feature on the pedestrian crush in New York City today, and as good as the photos are, they don’t do the situation justice. To get a sense of just how inadequate the sidewalks are in Midtown, you need to go there — or failing that, watch this Streetfilm from 2009 with narration by Streetsblog publisher Mark […]
The wider pedestrian zone is separated from the bike lane by planters, and the bike lane is separated from motor vehicle traffic by inexpensive bollards and low-profile barriers. Photo: NYCFreeParking/Twitter

This Block Now Has a Protected Bike Lane *and* a Wider Sidewalk

By David Meyer |
Midtown Manhattan avenues have a problem: The sidewalks aren't wide enough for all the people walking on them. People have to walk in the roadbed to get where they're going. On avenues with protected bike lanes, this means people on foot spill over into bikeways, rendering them all but impassable for cyclists. Now there's a single Midtown block with a protected bike lane that also has a wider sidewalk.