Manahttan CB4 has taken the unusual position to oppose the rezoning proposed by Related Company with or without a Casino. While there is an obvious disconnect with the State , City and MCB4’s objective of creating housing , there is also the intractable technical issue of transportation. It was a major issue with the stadium and it is still there with the “gaming facility”.
The DEIS analysis concludes that the Proposed Actions are anticipated to result in significant adverse impacts related to transportation, air quality, and construction period noise and traffic. Most of them cannot be mitigated and will result in catastrophic congestion and unsafe conditions on a vast swath of our district.
Traffic impacts
25 intersections are severely negatively impacted during PM peak hour and cannot be mitigated. They include the Lincoln tunnel entrance at W 33rd Street and W 30th and 8th Avenue, the entrance to Penn and Moynihan stations and Madison Square Garden arena.For example, 11th Avenue and W 33rd Street would experience an increment of 1276 vehicles at PM peak hour and 1626 vehicles on Saturday evening. These are very high. Consequently, significant delays are expected at many intersections. For example, it will take 10 minutes for cars to exit the new W 33rd Street service road. And 3 minutes for Westbound 33rd street traffic to clear the signal. Since these results do not require cumulative analysis. The effects in real life will be much larger than represented.
Pedestrians and safety:
The impacts on pedestrian circulation are severe and cannot be mitigated. They will lead to an unsafe public space and crashes Per the DEIS, 29 intersections experience high crash numbers in the project area and the conditions will be worsen by the project. Eight sidewalks, four corners, and 10 crosswalks are severely impacted in the weekday PM peak hour; most of the impacts cannot be mitigated. In order to mitigate pedestrian crowding, a few blocks of West 33rd Street would have to be closed to traffic and dedicated to pedestrians. However, West 33rd Street is also a major path for vehicles to reach the project.
Parking
The excessive amount of parking contributes to the traffic volumes impacts. This application requires the maximum amount of permitted parking for each use and an additional 500 spaces for the gaming.
Long Distance Bus Operation
The passengers’ pick-up and drop- off will encroach on the park use and exacerbate an extreme sidewalk crowding.
Bus passengers will be dropped off and picked up on the west side of Eleventh Avenue between West 33rd Street and West 32nd Street. Buses will conflict with trucks lined up to enter the loading dock located in the middle of the block. It is not clear if the impact of this activity on pedestrian volumes and sidewalk capacity has been estimated. Similar operations in the city show sidewalks obstructed by travelers and the sidewalk throughput severely constrained. AT PM peak hour it is projected that there will be 1,661 pedestrains on the West side sidewalk of 11th Avenue between W 33rdand W 32nd Streets. The gaming facility users will enter the gaming facility by walking through the park which will expand the commercial use of the park.
Bicycles:
The DEIS analysis does not reflect the installation of a bike lane on 11th Avenue, that will continue south from West 38thStreet to West 23rd Street to complete the network. This is a major deficiency in the study and will affect results.