One part of the Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen Traffic Study (we covered last month) is getting closer to completion. The pedestrian plaza on W 36th St – dubbed the “Canoe Project” – is nearly finished, clearing out what used to be disorganized parking spaces, and the neighboring crossing is ready to go.
There’s already a relatively-new pedestrian plaza further west along W 36th St, but it’s at Dyer Ave, so surrounded by all the wide, busy roads coming in and out of the tunnel, so there’s really been nothing drawing people to it. The new canoe plaza goes down to the crossing to the other plaza, so hopefully might help bring it some foot traffic.
As for the crossing…
The new crossing will be extremely helpful to anyone who’s ever made the mistake of trying to walk down the west side of 9th Ave there and come across the dead-end. It’s all set up, just waiting on the lights to be activated.
To recap from last time, here’s the concept that they’re working towards:
Just throw in a few plants and they’re done.