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Sixth and a Half Avenue Looking North from 51st Street

Sixth and a Half Avenue and W 51 Street in Manhattan New York

6½ Avenue is a north-south pedestrian passageway in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

, New York City, running from West 51st to West 57th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The pedestrian-only avenue is a corridor of privately owned public spaces, such as open-access lobbies and canopied space, which are open during the day. There are stop signs and stop ahead signs at six crossings between 51st and 56th Streets. The mid-block crossing at 57th Street is equipped with a traffic light. At the crosswalk areas, there are sidewalk pedestrian ramps with textured surface and flexible delineators to prevent vehicles parking in the areas. Each

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their i ...

along the thoroughfare has a street name sign that reads " AV" and the name of the cross street to officially mark the street name. The mid-block stop signs are unusual for Manhattan, and the fractional avenue name is a new idea for the numbered street system of New York City.

History

In 2011, the Friends of Privately Owned Public Spaces proposed the creation of a six-block pathway from 51st to 57th Streets that would be mid-block between Sixth and Seventh Avenues to ease pedestrian traffic. The proposal called for connecting

public spaces A public space is a place that is open and accessible to the general public. Roads (including the pavement), public squares, parks, and beaches are typically considered public space. To a limited extent, government buildings which are open to ...

in the area, that were not known to most pedestrians, into a pedestrian corridor and naming it

Holly Whyte William Hollingsworth "Holly" Whyte Jr. (July 11, 1917 – July 11, 1999) was an American urbanist, sociologist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher. He identified the elements that create vibrant public spaces within the city ...

Way. The idea was presented to the Community Board 5 Transportation Committee and the full Community Board 5, then the board sent a formal request to the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) in May 2011. In March 2012, NYCDOT announced the plan, with a list of improvements, to construct a new pedestrian-only avenue. The Community Board 5 Transportation Committee unanimously voted in favor of a resolution to support the project as presented by NYCDOT on March 26, 2012. The $60,000 project was completed in July 2012.

Criticism

Drivers often fail to obey the avenue's stop signs presenting a public safety issue."Stop Signs Along Midtown's 6 1/2 Avenue Catching Drivers By Surprise"
''CBS New York'' (July 19, 2012). Accessed: July 30, 2012

References

External links

NYCDOT presentation
{{DEFAULTSORT:6 Avenue Pedestrian malls in the United States Midtown Manhattan Privately owned public spaces Pedestrian infrastructure in the United States 2012 establishments in New York City