James Shelton
Pratt Institute
61 St. James Place
Brooklyn, NY 11238
May 13th, 2016
New York City Department of Transportation
55 Water Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10041
To Whom It May Concern,
As a current graduate student in the Pratt Institute City and Regional Planning program, I would like to respectfully submit my comments on the proposed rules to create a regulatory framework for the Department of Transportation’s pedestrian plaza program. The pedestrian plaza program has been a widely acknowledged as a success and has created substantial preservation and expansion of meaningful and safe public space throughout our city; establishing a cohesive regulatory framework for the creation and organization of our public plazas will only further enhance the efficacy of the program, therefore I would like to submit my endorsement.
The codification of a clear and concise application process will ease the process by which new plazas are designated, and will allow for an expansion of the plaza program that will improve the quality of public space in New York City. In particular, I would like to applaud the designation of “Pedestrian Flow Zones” as a crucial tool for the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists utilizing our pedestrian plazas and navigating the city streets around them. The designated “Pedestrian Flow Zones” described in Subdivision (C), Section (2), prohibiting use “for any purpose other than the safe and continuous movement of pedestrian traffic” will transform a general ethos of public interaction into a codified, enforceable rule that will ensure the safety of individuals enjoying pedestrian plazas without inhibiting their necessary role as viaducts for pedestrians who will not be lingering in the public space.
Additionally, the codification of “Designated Activity Zones” for the Times Square Pedestrian Plaza, as outlined in Subdivision (E), Section (3), will substantially improve the experience of one of the city’s busiest, most successful, yet often controversial public plazas. The designation of specific areas, marked by appropriate signage, where “commercial activity, solicitation, entertainment or performance” as well as “posing for photographs or videos” will substantially improve the often chaotic and sometimes aggressive experience of the Times Square Pedestrian Plaza, particularly for the significant tourist population that frequents the area and may be unaccustomed to interacting with street performers and vendors. This designation of specific “Activity Zones” will also substantially free up space for pedestrians to transverse the plaza uninhibited by crowds of photograph seekers, buskers, costumed performers, etc, in one of the city’s busiest business and transit districts.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this issue.
Sincerely,
James Shelton