A Midtown street is slowly morphing into a pedestrian plaza.
The city plans to turn East 43rd Street between Lexington and Third avenues into one of its new “shared streets,” where it will make the sidewalk and road into one surface, add potted plants and tables and chairs to delineate the pedestrian area from cars, and then ask drivers to travel no faster than 5 mph on the stretch.
The street will be renovated in the spring, said city officials.
“Our newest Shared Street, steps away from Grand Central Station, will be an amazing public space in the heart of one of the densest parts of New York City,” said city Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.
Pedestrians in that neighborhood outnumber cars by about 16 to 1, said Trottenberg.
The Shared Streets program is one of several moves the city has made in the past four years to make roads more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly. Many of these steps have also contributed to lower vehicle speeds and increased congestion in Manhattan.
This will be the city’s third official “Shared Street.” The city has also installed one on Broadway between 24th and 25th streets, and this summer, the city transportation department set up a one day shared street from Mott Street from Bayard to Worth streets in Chinatown.