Columbus (Now Really A) Circle

A Department of City Planning design has restored the formerly tangled mess of Columbus Circle traffic to its original orbital flow. The circle, which is the intersection of Broadway, 60th Street, and Eighth Avenue at the southwest corner of Central Park, is now a true traffic rotary with a big chunk of pedestrian space surrounding the explorer's statue.

A thorough analysis by Arne Kastner, T.A.'s visiting German traffic planner, shows the new design is a big improvement for pedestrians, who now have a direct connection between upper and lower Broadway. The big losers are slow bicyclists, who are stuck on the periphery of the circle and subject to streams of vehicles cutting across their path. Faster cyclists, like cars, can move through the redesigned intersection much more easily than before. The design will continue to be tweaked and T.A. is working to develop solutions for slower cyclists.