Commuter Crowds Finally Get Some Elbow Room on Vesey Street
Commuters can now fan out along Vesey Street, between the PATH station and Church Street. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
The tight pedestrian squeeze that is Vesey Street is finally loosening up.
On Monday, fencing along the rush hour-clogged artery between the PATH Station and Church Street was removed, nearly doubling the width of the sidewalk. The extra space provides the flood of commuters along that route with more elbow room and faster passage. There are now two Church Street crossings rather than the single one that created a huge bottleneck at the Vesey Street corner.
Last week, a new curb was completed on the south side of Vesey Street, where the Port Authority is building out a wider, permanent sidewalk. While the eastern end of that block has opened to foot traffic, high fencing still blocks off the south section of Vesey Street closer to the PATH station and West Broadway. By the end of the month, all of the fencing along that block is expected to come down.
“This allows the space to be given back to the public,” said Catherine McVay Hughes, chair of Community Board 1, which has long called for providing a wider path for the daily flood of commuters.
Comments
Relief Needed on Liberty Street, Too
Thank you for the article on the widening of Vesey St, a welcome sight in our vastly overcrowded neighborhood. I am a resident at 114 Liberty Street, between Church and Greenwich Streets. We would love to see the same widening happening on LIberty Street as we are currently overrun with tourists coming down our street while we remain behind sidewalk barricades. We have seen some relief with the opening of Courtland Way, but it's often closed due to continuing construction. We have also been informed that the north sidewalk of Liberty St will open in November, which will potentially go a long way to relieving the pressure of pedestrian traffic on our street. We are very anxious to hear of other plans that will alleviate the situation on Liberty and surrounding streets, including Trinity, Cedar, and Greenwich Streets.
Steven Abramson
114 Liberty St.