Broadway Closed to Cars?

New York's city planners laid out the city in a grid designed to let traffic race north-south on the avenues, but Broadway, which cuts diagonally across the grid, stymied their best-laid plans and created traffic. Well Mayor Bloomberg has said no more: Beginning on the Memorial Day holiday in May, cars will be diverted onto Seventh Ave from Broadway on the avenue's Times Square and Herald Square stretches, with picnic tables and potted plants to replace the traffic, the Times of London reports. Officials say the plan could raise traffic speeds by 37 percent and prevent dozens of pedestrians from being hit by cars.