New York City Street Gets a Tourist Lane

Some native New Yorkers' dream came true on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk between East 22nd and 23rd streets yesterday. An unknown person had divided the sidewalk with a white line: one side for tourists and the other marked "New Yorkers." Receptionist Bianca Smith said she liked the idea. "New York tourists are annoying. They stop, look around, take pictures, and hold me up. I don't know if the lanes could be enforced, but it would be nice. For now, I'll just keep walking around them," she said.

Tourists are OK

[lowrydr310]

It's really not a problem unless you're in a severely congested area. There are some hotspots that get really crowded, but for the most part people know to just keep moving, or if you want to stop, get out of the main path of pedestrian traffic.

The problem is when I just want to get where I'm going, and there's a herd of 20 tourists from the same group blocking the entire sidewalk. I don't have a problem with herds of tourists, NY is a nice city to visit and people are very welcoming of visitors, but just have some courtesy and get out of the way. I bet these are the same people that stay in the left lane when driving on highways and don't get over to let faster traffic pass.

Seriously...

[dcollins]

Even regular New Yorkers walk too slow for me. "Fast moving NY" my ass.

With one single exception -- The 6-foot-tall fashion models who are about 2/3 legs walking around during Fashion Week. They're crazy fast.

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[laejoh]

Perhaps they noticed you, and that's why they're speeding up?

Airports

[DaMattster]

I wish they had this for airports. A lane for people walking from security to the gate and another for people walking from the gate to security and baggage claim. It makes it very difficult to get where you are going and implementing a lane would be a good idea, enforcing it is a whole different ball game.

Brilliant! This is a great concept. we need more..

[qwerty8ytrewq]

..of these. Also, in tourist driving areas, caravans and rubber neckers only thanks. What about tourist lifts that go around buildings, rather than up and down?

Flatiron district

[bjb]

This is a picture up 5th avenue just south of 23rd street. The building to the right is the Flatiron building [wikipedia.org] and is a heavily congested tourist area.

Frankly, I'm not surprised that someone picked this spot. Every day that you walk through that part of town (especially on the north side of 23rd street) and you will find hordes of people taking random pictures and gawking at the building and surroundings. I hate to be cynical, but it starts to make you think that every person who shelled out cash for a SLR

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[m2f2]

Ready for another round of residents-against-tourists. You are upset about tourists in NY, I don't see any difference when newyorkers crowd streets in Florence. It seems that people like to be tourists, but don't like them in their way.

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[majesty2180]

I agree. I live in Maine (also known as Vacationland), and I know exactly what you are talking about. And now like the rest of them, I will be a hypocrite: Next weekend (Memorial Day weekend), you will find me hiding from the major arteries in Maine just to avoid the bad driving habits and discourtesy of those not from Maine. Here are several tips for every flatlander, uh... rubber-necker, I mean tourist, in Maine: 1) use blinkers, 2) stop at those red and white octagon shaped signs, 3) yield at the inv

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[Dthief]

5) Maine has a distracted driving law, read up on it, and observe it.

I'll read about it while I'm driving...I 3 multitasking

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[bjb]

Very fair points by the both of you. While I don't think I can speak for Florence, I can at least say the reason why New Yorkers probably get a bit more aggravated is that this kind of thing happens all year around at all hours of the day. There is no "off season" in NY.

Tell you what, though.. keep letting me drink the blueberry wine and I'll leave you alone next time you're staring at the high rises ;-)

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[Dthief]

But I'd be more annoyed at the thought of the city wanting to spend $31mm on shutting down 34th street so that people can also gawk at the Empire State Building. Who does this serve? Tourists. Tell you what - you pay me $31mm and I'll close the street for you and even throw in some tables and chairs.

tourists do bring in many millions of dollars to NYC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_New_York_City : 30 billion/year according to wikipedia...though I dont trust them).......efforts that encourage tou