NEW YORK'S TRAFFIC

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19803, 16 December 1929, Page 6

NEW YORK'S TRAFFIC

SOLVING OF PROBLEM. BILLION-DOLLAR PLANS. A vast and ambitious programme which would envisage New York's traffic needs for 20 years and, at a cost of 1,000.000,000 dollars, honeycomb the substructure of Manhattan with great highway tunnels, sweep its streets clear of outgrown traffic impediments, bound it with express highways, and span its rivers and burrow under them, has just been submitted for the approval of the board of estimate by the engineering firm of Day and Zimmerman, Inc., of Philadelphia, recognised authorities on traffic problems. Back of the scheme is the purpose of so routing traffic away from the congested areas as not to slow up its course, but to reduce the distance it has to travel by more direct arteries. Several of the projects have had previous authorisation by the city, and a few are now in construction or about to be started. Major bridge and tunnel projects and improvements, of which, the report declares, the. need is imperative, are: The triborough bridge, linking the Bronx and Queens with Manhattan; the midtown vehicular tunnel under the East Eiver, joining Thirty-eighth street, Manhattan, with Long Island City, together with cross-town tube extensions at both ends, a previously authorised project for which plans are now under way; a 70,000,000 dollars north-and-south highway from the Brooklyn terminus . of the proposed Narrows tunnel to Staten Island, to the intersection of Astoria and Twelfth avenues in Queens;, a west side marginal highway along the Hudson river front to carry through traffic from lower Manhattan to the Bronx, and a 68,000.000 dollars vehicular tunnel from the Battery to Brooklyn under Governors Island, with a Manhattan terminal at Cedar and West streets and a Brooklyn terminal near Hicks street. In the" category of projects and improvements, th<e ultimate necessity of which must be determined by the city's experience on the completion of projects now under way, the report places the proposed Narrows tunnel, working plans for which are being made; a 200,000,000 dollars vehicular

tunnel extending nearly the full length of Manhattan Island, underlying for the most part Fifth avenue, and a 57.000,000 dollars East River bridge linking Manhattan at Tenth street with Brooklyn. Among the less ambitious projects recommended are a southerly extension of Grand Concourse to provide a traffic outlet through Mott avenue over a new bridge spanning the Harlem river; extension of Lexington Avenue across Gramercy square and Irving place extension "southward of Madison avenue through Union square; a short link joining the East and West Side marginal highways, and the extension of Sixth avenue "to Fulton street, with streetwidening in that section. The demolition of Sixth avenue and other "L" lines while approved in the report, along with the removal of surface car tracks from congested highways, should occur only gradually, the report holds, by reason of the acute present need for rapid transit facilities.

AN OPTIMIST.

TAXI-DRIVER WAITS FIVE DAYS. The Bombay police recently took into custody a taxi-driver named Syed Abdul Hafiz. His cab was engaged by a European who arrived by the P. and O. liner Naldera, en route for Australia. The passenger drove round the city in Syed's cab, returning a few minutes before the Naldera was due to sail. He said he had not enough money in his pocket to pay his fare, hurried up the gangway, "after taking the driver' 3 number, and promised to send the money down Syed waited patiently, but before the" money was forthcoming the Naldera sailed. Syed, undismayed, told his friends that the sahib would return sooner or later, and accordingly kept the taximeter running the remainder of the day and all night, and proclaimed Ins determination to keep it running till the Naldera returned, although he was told this would be weeks. He ate, drank, and slept in the car nnd adopted a threatening attitude towards people who advised him to go away. There is a time limit to toe period a cab can wait on the quay, but Syed a railed with the police that he was still waiting for his fare. The police, discovering his license had expired, served him with a summons. He ignored it, and was arrested. The taxicab was also taken to the police station, with the meter still running. It showed that 184 rupees (£l3 16s) was owing.