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Comment by throwaway7ahgb | Hacker News Reader

>> the leadership (and many voters) were more interested in coming up with ways to make it convenient for drivers to drive and/or park in every neighborhood in the city than making it a pleasant place to live. The ghost of Robert Moses influences everything there.

Sorry but this statement is not true. Compare NYC today vs 1980s or earlier. There are more bike lanes, parks, walking paths than ever before. Roads in Manhattan are narrowed frequently to allow more pedestrians.

The west side highway is amazing for biking, I love it. Just because it is not Copenhagen or Amsterdam doesn't mean progress isn't made.

source: Lived in Manhattan for 20+ years. Own a car, bike regularly and walk to work.

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> Roads in Manhattan are narrowed frequently to allow more pedestrians.

That's wonderful to hear! I lived in NYC for the better part of a decade and was a big supporter of orgs like Transportation Alternatives and their work with the DOT to advocate for road diets.

At least when I lived there the painted bike lanes were a running joke and more dangerous than just taking a car lane because every block there was at least one taxi or truck blocking the bike lane. And in cases where there was physical separation you had to contend with moped drivers riding at unsafe speeds. The Queensboro Bridge bike path was dangerously overcrowded and every year they claimed they'd open another lane; it looks like that's still "just around the corner" https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/04/08/first-look-the-dot-fi... but I wouldn't hold my breath. The Queensbridge Greenway shared use path became a muddy parking lot soon after it opened and it seems like they're still struggling to keep cars off it. NYPD still seems more enthusiastic about ticketing cyclists than drivers who park illegally.

I didn't mean to imply that the NYC bike/ped folks haven't notched some wins. And I used to tell myself that as bad as it was, other US cities were worse for cyclists and pedestrians. But that wasn't true and every time I go back to visit friends and family I'm still grateful when we leave.

Also I could be wrong here but I think Central Park was also closed off to normal traffic. I rode an e-bike there last year and it was so much fun.

That's awesome! It was well after I left but I heard they finally closed off the loops to cars. It always boggled my mind that they even let drivers take over the nicest park in the city.

Now all they need to do is calm traffic on the transverses...

It’s so far behind Amsterdam, Paris, etc it doesn’t deserve to consider itself in the same class.

Behind in what? Amsterdam is 800k people vs 8.3 million in NYC which is close to half of the population of the entire Netherlands

In being a livable city

This appears like a subjective definition to me considering 8.3 million seem alright with what nyc has to offer

That’s a very bizarre metric to use. I guess Kinshasa is twice as nice as NYC then.

I'd assume its better than alternatives. People don't just decide to whip their back with a rope every day. They make choices that make sense to them and give them the best individual outcome.

NYC is a fantastic city -- high paying jobs, ubiquitous transit, amazing food, support for the arts, beautiful parks, good people...

But compared to other world-class cities they have (had?) this weird car-shaped blind spot where every neighborhood and park was filled with cars and most people don't care.

So a bit more than twice Berlin?

It can improve a lot and still be godawful.

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