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6½ Avenue

Pedestrian path in Manhattan, New York

2}} Avenue looking north from 51st Street

2}} Avenue and West 51st Street in Manhattan

Restaurant using the west half of the avenue

6½ Avenue is a north-south pedestrian passageway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, running from West 51st to West 57th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

The pedestrian-only avenue is a 1/4 mi 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 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 in the area, that were not known to most pedestrians, into a pedestrian corridor and naming it Holly Whyte 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. Initially after the opening of the 6½ Avenue, drivers often failed to obey the avenue's stop signs, which presented a public safety issue at the time.

References

Chaban, Matt. (March 26, 2012). "Meet Me on 6½th Avenue: DOT Planning Public Promenade Through Middle of Midtown Towers". [[The New York Observer]].
(March 30, 2012). "New York City Mulls '6 1/2 Avenue' Proposal, Linking Pedestrian Walkways In Midtown". [[CBS New York]].
(September 6, 2012). "NYC DOT Announces Completion Of "6 ½ Avenue," Connecting Midtown Public Spaces With New, Safer Pedestrian Crossings". [[New York City Department of Transportation]].
Colvin, Jill. (November 11, 2011). "City to Create New Mid-Block Crossing on West 57th Street". [[DNAinfo.
[http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/201203_midtown-mid-block_cb5_slides.pdf "Midtown Mid-Block Crossings"], [[New York City Department of Transportation]] (May 10, 2012). Accessed: July 12, 2012
(July 13, 2012). "City Room: Officially Marking a New Manhattan Avenue". [[The New York Times]].
Colvin, Jill. (April 27, 2011). "Secret Midtown Passageways Seek More Exposure".
Flegenheimer, Matt. (March 29, 2012). "For Walkers, a Sixth-and-a-Half Ave. May Take Shape". [[The New York Times]].
(March 27, 2012). "Avenue of Midtown Plazas Could Be Connected by the Summer". DNAInfo.
Johnson, Mary. (July 12, 2012). "New Crosswalks Connect to Form '6 1/2 Avenue' in Midtown". DNAInfo.com.
[http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/07/19/stop-signs-along-midtowns-6-12-avenue-catching-drivers-by-surprise/ "Stop Signs Along Midtown's 6 1/2 Avenue Catching Drivers By Surprise"], ''CBS New York'' (July 19, 2012). Accessed: July 30, 2012

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

pedestrian-malls-in-the-united-states midtown-manhattan privately-owned-public-spaces pedestrian-infrastructure-in-the-united-states 2012-establishments-in-new-york-city

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