Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Traffic

Pope Francis and the Flexibility of Our Streets

pope_in_cp
popeless

Add Pope Francis's tour of New York to the long list of carmageddon scares that successfully frightened off would-be motorists. I grabbed these two shots of traffic from Google Maps, and despite all the alarming car detour icons, you can see that traffic was lighter during peak Francis than it normally is on a New York City weekday.

While the pope's motorcade was wending through a crowd of 80,000 people in Central Park Friday afternoon, typical pre-weekend traffic bottlenecks were eerily quiet. The approach to the Holland Tunnel, usually a non-stop symphonic blast of car horns at that time of day, looked like this:

Meanwhile, if you were on the Upper West Side that afternoon, you could walk anywhere in the road on your way to see the pontiff, or learn to ride a bike on 72nd Street. There was a de facto bikeway down the middle of 57th Street for much of the pope's visit, space cleared away for emergency access that people on two wheels gravitated to immediately, happy not to mix it up with 30-foot long flat-bed trailers.

A large number of people probably put off car trips to avoid the pope crowds. Did they take transit instead? Figures from the MTA's commuter railroads are mixed -- fewer people than normal took the train during morning commute hours, according to the agency, while passenger counts were higher than normal during the middle of the day. (Numbers for subways and buses are not yet available.)

Regardless, the streets didn't jam up any more than they normally do, by and large, despite several large disruptions of the grid and the huge turnout for Francis. His visit was a testament to the flexibility of NYC's transportation network.

This is a good occasion to revisit Bruce Schaller's 2006 report, "Necessity or Choice" [PDF], which remains an extremely valuable source of information about Manhattan car commuters. According to Schaller, 90 percent of people who drive to work in the Manhattan Central Business District live in areas where transit would be a viable option for that commute. In addition, a large chunk of the car traffic in Manhattan is simply passing through, with no actual destination in the most congested part of town.

The flexibility we can observe when the pope swings by is there all along. We just don't see it, thanks to the force of habit and the skewed incentives created by free roads and parking. New York could have bigger pedestrian zones and safe bikeways all the time, not just when a global megastar like Francis comes to town.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

How the Sausage Gets Made: Republicans Force Meaningless Vote on Congestion Pricing Repeal

... And will the Idaho Stop become a victim of the current bikelash? It's all in today's Capitol Idea by Amy Sohn.

May 13, 2025

‘Chaos’ Candidate? DoorDash Gave $1M to Super PAC Backing Cuomo, Who Decries Delivery Workers

Cuomo says he'll fix the chaos on the Streets by reining in app companies, but DoorDash just donated $1 million to help him win.

May 13, 2025

The Dave Colon Challenge: Whitney Tilson Is Pro-Bike, Pro-Business And Pro-Police

The political novice has 30 years experience cycling in the city but doesn't have a political record to help predict what his safe streets governance strategy would be.

May 13, 2025

Can New York City Fix Its Deadly ‘Conduit’ to JFK Airport?

The extra-wide medians on Conduit could fit 46 football fields, which combined with extra-wide travel lanes makes the strip prone to speeding and crashes.

May 13, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines: Bike Your Mayor to Work Day

It's the final day of our mayoral questionnaire week. Plus other news from a busy day!

May 13, 2025
See all posts