Paving the Road to Hell's Kitchen

All sorts of forces align to make Hell's Kitchen a tough place to navigate. The Lincoln Tunnel ensures a steady stream of traffic, much of it big trucks and buses, heading down Ninth Avenue throughout the day. The Port Authority bus terminal, Times Square and Penn Station produce a fountain of foot traffic, largely funneled onto eighth and ninth by a bevy of stores and restaurants and the relative retail scarcity of 10th. A lack of bike lanes forces riders to squeeze between cars on the street or people on the sidewalk. The planned extension of the 7 train only stands to make the crowds worse.

But there's hope in Hell after all. It comes in the form of a thorough study of neighborhood traffic conducted by the New York City Department of Transportation. Over the past four years the department has examined the congestion situation — from the perspectives of pedestrians, riders, and drivers alike — in an area stretching north-south from West 29th Street to West 55th Street and east-west from Eighth Avenue to the West Side Highway. Last Monday, it presented many of its recommended improvements in a public meeting. The upgrades, driven by community feedback, should go a long way toward raising quality of life in the neighborhood.