Sandra Dixon
Government and Community Relations
Port Authority of NY/NJ
Fax: 212-435-6933

Margaret Forgione
Manhattan Borough Commissioner
NYC DOT
Fax: 212-442-7260

Re: Request for pedestrian safety and access study at Lincoln Tunnel entrances and exits in Manhattan.

Dear Program Manager Dixon and Commissioner Forgione,

Transportation Alternatives shares your concern about the safety of pedestrians near the entrances and exits of the Lincoln Tunnel in Manhattan. Conditions are extremely unsafe and unpleasant for pedestrians in the Lincoln Tunnel area.

To that end, we urge the Port Authority, in conjunction with the NYC DOT, to conduct a pedestrian safety and access study encompassing the areas around all of the entrances and exits to the Lincoln Tunnel. The goal of this proposed study is to comprehensively assess the pedestrian problems around the tunnel and to develop traffic engineering and enforcement solutions for those problems. Such a study could easily be completed within the next six months, and at a modest expense to the Port Authority.

We are concerned by the proposal your agencies have put forward to barricade pedestrian access to 36th Street at 9th Avenue. The goal should be to improve pedestrian access and safety in the Lincoln Tunnel area, not restrict it. In the absence of a study which seeks to improve the overall pedestrian environment around the Lincoln Tunnel, Transportation Alternatives requests you do not proceed with plans to barricade existing legal pedestrian movement in the area.

Thank you for your attention to our concerns. We look forward to speaking to you further about this issue.

Sincerely,

John Kaehny
Executive Director

CC: Manhattan Community Board 6
Manhattan Borough President
City Councilmember Christine Quinn