In the last few years NYC has closed stretches of Broadway (a significant north-south corridor) to traffic, squeezed vehicle lane widths to add bike lanes and introduced several measures to slow or impede traffic so the city is safer for pedestrians. These are all very good things, but they come with a cost.
Reducing the surface area of roads does not magically remove cars from the roads, it just creates congestion and traffic.
If anything, Uber's model would seem to reduce traffic since their cars are more deliberate vs. taxis' aimlessly wandering.
NYC should try to figure out how to partner with Uber. Taxi's are already expensive enough to be something of a luxury (though filthy), Uber is a far better experience.
> Reducing the surface area of roads does not magically remove cars from the roads, it just creates congestion and traffic.
Most traffic theory maintains that this actually does magically reduce traffic. People who would have driven now decide that there's too much traffic and find another way. Similarly, expanding highways doesn't reduce congestion, the number of cars just increases to the previous levels of congestion.
Reducing the complexity of a large number of intersections (AKA closing & narrowing Broadway) can move traffic through them more quickly:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pedestrians/broadway.shtml
'Travel speeds for northbound trips throughout West Midtown improved 17% from fall 2008-2009, compared with 8% in East Midtown.'
The main issue seems to be that Uber isn't replacing taxis but augmenting them: before there were about 2000 taxis in the core of Manhattan during peak hours, and there are now 2000 taxis and about 1900 Ubers. The trips per taxi seem to be slightly reduced, but overall there's still an increase in the total number of taxi-like vehicles circulating, and the total number of trips made by automobile vs. other modalities (subway, walking, etc.). Thereby making it easier to get a taxi, but making traffic congestion worse.
Reducing the surface area of roads does not magically remove cars from the roads, it just creates congestion and traffic.
If anything, Uber's model would seem to reduce traffic since their cars are more deliberate vs. taxis' aimlessly wandering.
NYC should try to figure out how to partner with Uber. Taxi's are already expensive enough to be something of a luxury (though filthy), Uber is a far better experience.