In Manhattan, Shopping and Driving Don't Mix

The New York City Department of Transportation's yearly statistical smorgasbord adds a new tool: neighborhood travel profiles showing how people arrived in eight neighborhoods. In many of them, the number of drivers was in the single digits.

1 minute read

May 3, 2011, 9:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

Union Square was one such neighborhood, with only 4% of those surveyed reporting that they had driven to get there.

Noah Kazis reports:

"Given that 70 percent of the people surveyed were there to shop or eat out, it's safe to say that making parking more abundant isn't the key to helping businesses in Union Square prosper. Similar data compiled on other commercial strips could help assuage many merchant concerns about re-appropriating parking spaces for busways, bike lanes, or pedestrian improvements."

Kazis delves into the full report, which also reports on the effectiveness of several major transportation projects around the city.

Thanks to Noah Kazis

FULL STORY: DOT's Annual Scorecard Confirms: Most New Yorkers Don’t Shop and Drive

Monday, May 2, 2011 in Streetsblog

Transportation New York New York City New York Data Driving statistics View More

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