Media Contact
Starting this Thursday, cars will be banned from lower Manhattan’s 14th street as part of an 18-month experiment to improve traffic flow. The 1.1-mile stretch will only allow buses, trucks, bikes and pedestrians. Only local businesses and residents will have car access to the street.
Karan Girotra
Professor of Operations, Technology and Information Management
Karan Girotra, professor of operations, technology and innovation at Cornell Tech and the Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, is an expert in smart transportation. He says the ban opens up more opportunities for commuters to take advantage of alternative transportation.
Girotra says:
“The car ban is a great opportunity for commuters to use shared bikes – such as the Citi Bike system – to supplement gaps in the public transit system, such as east-west travel in Manhattan. Our research from major bike-share systems in Europe shows that the single biggest source of users for a bike-share system is commuters who use them to connect to public transit. Bike shares are ideal for trips under a mile-long and the ability to drop off bikes at any station makes them great for one-way trips.”
