Traffic

Last week, the New York City Council approved a special permit granting developer Glenwood Management the right to build a 400-car parking garage at 310-328 West 38th Street. The decision was not unexpected, as the permit had already been approved by the City Planning Commission earlier this month.

State lawmakers reached an agreement yesterday allowing the city to move forward with plans for a recycling transfer station on Manhattan's Gansevoort peninsula near 14th Street. The step may do more to reduce traffic than any other measure passed during the latest legislative session, which wrapped up this morning.

A study released this week by Transportation Alternatives undercuts the claim that closing Central Park's loop drive to cars would increase traffic on the streets of Harlem. To the contrary, findings indicate that loop entrances on 110th street at Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards "act as traffic magnets," drawing vehicles onto neighborhood streets from more appropriate routes like the FDR, Harlem River Drive and the West Side Highway.

Two weeks ago Streetsblog reported on the glut of public parking garages being built in Hell's Kitchen, which threatens to worsen traffic conditions in one of New York's most congested neighborhoods. The City Planning Commission could have set a precedent last Friday by denying a developer's request to build a 400-car public garage as part of a mixed-use project at 310-328 West 38th Street. Only 232 parking spaces would have been allowed without the special permit.

From the way back machine comes this remarkable essay, "The Last Traffic Jam," about the blind spots that plague the motoring mentality. The anonymous author, writing for Time Magazine in 1947, delivers observations about road rage and the endemic violence of driving that still apply today.

Tomorrow Transportation Alternatives will hold the 7th Annual Great NYC Commuter Race. Three contestants -- traveling by bike, transit and car -- will see who has the quickest commute from Fort Greene in Brooklyn to Manhattan's Union Square.

Our regular babysitter Laura, an R train commuter, is out of town this week. Nicole, the woman providing us with back-up nanny service for our 1-year-old, travels to our house, in Park Slope, in a mini-van. This morning she noted, quite happily, that there was so little traffic on her way from Ocean Parkway that she was trying to figure out what holiday it must be.

A tipster who attended last night's MAS event about Moynihan Station sent us this delicious tidbit, in which some small measure of justice is served for Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky's contribution to the killing of congestion pricing:

On Friday, Streetsblog looked at how northern Virginia can't get enough road widening. As a follow-up, Gary Toth of Project for Public Spaces directed us to another example of how smart growth faces hurdles in the places that need it most -- in this case, the Trenton suburb of Bordentown, New Jersey (right: the main drag).