Shoppers to take ‘the Fifth’
New lanes: Cars out, pedestrians in
It’s a gift to holiday shoppers — and a lump of coal for drivers.
The city will temporarily turn two lanes of traffic on Fifth Avenue between 48th and 51st streets into pedestrian zones for the shopping strip’s 20,000 pedestrians-per-hour crowds.
Beginning “shortly after Thanksgiving,” the DOT will cordon off the two 8-foot curbside lanes — one typically dedicated to cars, the other to buses — from the five-lane thoroughfare and plop down concrete barriers to keep motor vehicles out, DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Ed Pincar revealed in a letter obtained by The Post.
As a result, shoppers will get 40 percent more space for walking, Pincar wrote.
“The growing number of visitors around Rockefeller Center during the holiday season has led to incredibly high pedestrian volumes in the area,” he said.
“High numbers of pedestrians leads to sidewalk and corner crowding for long periods of the day and into the evening.”
The barriers will come down
“shortly after the New Year,” according to the letter.
Keeping the crowds that flock to the bustling blocks — home to Rockefeller Plaza, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Saks Fifth Avenue — from spilling into traffic during the holiday season has been an ongoing battle for the city.
Last year, the DOT lined Fifth Avenue’s sidewalks with concrete barriers as well as metal fences known as “French barricades,” but did not create additional pedestrian space.
Motorists were disappointed at the new plan.
“It’s going to create too much traffic. It’s going to slow me down,” fumed delivery van driver Ma Diallo, who said the change made him “angry.” “It’s no good for people like me. No good.”
Still, shopkeepers heralded the extra room for consumers as Christmas coming early.
“It’s going to increase foot traffic,” said Fifth Avenue shopkeeper Shanique Warren.
“They shut down Fifth Avenue for parades . . . This is the biggest shopping season of the year, why not? These sidewalks get jampacked for the holidays.”
Some want the agency to go even further.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and local City Councilman Keith Powers have called for 49th and 50th streets and parts of Fifth and Sixth avenues to be completely turned over to pedestrians for the holidays.
“New York City is incredible during the holidays, but it can be near impossible to get around one of its most iconic sites,” Powers said.
“DOT’s upgrades are a positive first step and I look forward to more progress,” he said.
DOT spokesperson Scott Gastel insisted the plan is merely a “potential remedy” and that “nothing has been finalized.”