34th St. and 7th Ave., an intersection which will be further overloaded with pedestrian traffic after Moynihan Station is built.
Last month, MTR announced that the Tri-State Campaign would launch an advocacy campaign centered around the unfriendly pedestrian environment surrounding Penn Station. Commuters already deal with narrow and crowded sidewalks, insufficient crossing times, and wide streams of cars that frequently block crosswalks. And conditions will soon worsen.
The Access to the Region’s Core environmental review contains an admission that sidewalks around Moynihan Station (the expanded Penn Station) must be widened to accommodate the flood of commuters that will appear daily once the ARC tunnel enables a doubling of peak-hour NJ Transit rail service to and from NYC.
But commuters need relief now, which is why Tri-State is advocating measures like closing 32nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues to traffic and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s proposal for a bike and pedestrian path on West 33rd Street. Transportation Alternatives and the Regional Plan Association support the measures.
Interested MTR readers can help by suggesting names for the campaign. TSTC staff suggestions have thus far ranged from the vague and futurist (“Penn32″) to the inappropriately radical (“The Penn Commuters’ Liberation Campaign”) to the simply derivative (“Penn Station Streets Renaissance”… sound familiar?). Leave your suggestions in the comment box – we’ll send a small prize to anyone who comes up with a winning suggestion by February 1! Organizations interested in joining this advocacy campaign should e-mail tstc@tstc.org.
[Note: This deadline was extended by a few days to give MTR e-mail subscribers more time to view the post and think of suggestions. -SH]
‘Penn Station on Foot’
‘Feet For Penn Station’
‘Walk To Penn Station’
‘Penn Station Pedways’
‘Walkable Penn Station’
Penn Station Pedestrian Access
Safe Routes to Penn Station
I walk it every day, and to me – it would be “Sidewalk Salvation”
Pennestrian Paradise
Repennt!
Streets Pennaisance
The Penn Station Pedestrian Improvement Project (PiSPIP)
At one time there was a pedestrian tunnel that connected 6th Avenue Herald Square station with Penn Station under 32nd Street. In the mid-70s there was a proposal to put an accelerated moving sidewalk of the kind that were common in Paris at that time. Accelerated moving sidewalks were far too ambitious for a 1970s NYC that was pulling its horns for a big chill lasting nearly 30 years, but times have changed and what seemed impossible 32 years ago may just be right now. Port Authority personnel may still be around from that time that may remember the proposal. Some research needs to be done on this, but just this one project would do alot to alleviate congestion in a weather free and speedy trip between stations.
I walk this every day too. I’ve done it so many times, it begins to feel like a video game. How fast can you walk through the oncoming people without bumping into anyone? I’ve gotten quite good. Here are my suggestions:
Penn Area Street Support
Penn Area Trail Harvest
Unherd the Penn
PennPAL: PennStation Pathway and Access League
The PennPALs: The PennStation Pedestrian Access Lobbyists
The PennPALS: PennStation Pedestrian Advocates for Links and Safety
Penn for Peds
Penn’s Paths 4 Peds
PEDs for PENN
Pedestrian Friendly ORiented Penn Station
PEDs to PENN
PENNfoot (Sounds like BIGfoot, could be a great marketing term – huge foot crushing cars on the way to PENN station)
PENNwalk (Could be mistaken for a charity walk I guess)
PENN Herald
Herald’s PENN
Herald to a New PENN
Herald a New PENN
[...] couple of weeks ago, MTR asked readers to come up with an evocative name for Tri-State’s forthcoming campaign to improve the walking [...]
Hey hey…
Be sure to see mine……
[...] Read “Help Name Tri-State’s Penn Station Campaign [...]