“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
― Joe Klaas

Unfortunately, I’ve been writing about the traffic downtown and the danger to pedestrians, mothers with baby carriages, the disabled, seniors, trying to cross the street — for 25 years. The only consistency about the conditions has been that everyone lies. I remember arguing with the members of the Traffic and Transportation Committee at Community Board #2 about DOT, writing letters to Tom Duane, Deborah Glick, and other politicians. No response.

Then, of course, someone came up with the idea of reducing traffic and ramping up income by, essentially, adding on an extra toll — not for using a bridge or tunnel — but for driving around lower Manhattan. That got a lot of politicians busy. Not that any letters got answered, mind you. But the palavering reached fever proportions. The idea was, billions would be earned for public transportation because public transportation was losing a lot of business. Of course, that was partly due to safety conditions. But, naturally, we should have fully funded subways and buses. After all, we’re not animals, right? This is a civilized city! And, it would cut down on traffic and make our streets safer for pedestrians. That plan went into effect and commuters and downtown residents were penalized in order to fund this brilliant plan to reduce congestion. The money has been rolling in! Downtown residents would now more easily be able to cross the street. Broome Street, Watts Street, Canal Street, lower 6th Avenue, Chinatown, SoHo, parts of Tribeca — would be less impacted by vehicles trying to kill those crossing the street.

That lasted for a couple of months.

What we have now is MORE traffic — plus fees for driving a car, higher taxi fees, LESS ability to use a crosswalk — and demonic gridlock — more of the time. And without traffic agents to control the chaos! Why? Because commuters have decided that they’ll absorb the fees but drive more angrily, while blaming downtown residents for their inconvenience — their only solution to a money grab that will have no effect other than to inrease DOT income. Don’t let the bullshit numbers confuse you, here’s what it’s like folks:

Crosswalks are meant for cars, not people!