AUGUST 27, 2007 --

* In Frank Loesser's "The Most Happy Fella," the song is:

"Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by."

(Note to LPR clicksters: the situation set forth below is "invisible" [thank you Senator Clinton for suggesting the term] to the media and our politicians.)

LPR was on 14th Street in Manhattan, near 6th Avenue August 19, at about 1:30 p.m. and saw traffic tied up just east of the avenue.

6th Street, North of 14th Street

Street Fairs are often the cause of traffic snarls …

When LPR got to the intersection, the problem became apparent: a Sunday
street fair filled the avenue north of the
intersection and vehicles approaching the intersection had to veer onto 14th street, right or left.

Traffic cleavage on 6th and 14th Streets

Traffic on 6th Street veering onto 14th Street

Traffic on 14th Street just west of 6th Street

Sunday street fairs are a regular occurrence in Manhattan from spring through autumn, and TRAFFIC CONGESTION occurs, generally, wherever these fairs are located.

Other causes of TRAFFIC CONGESTION in Manhattan include double-parked trucks, and work on or below road surfaces.

East 126th Street

9th Avenue constrcution, near Lincoln Center

LPR has long believed that the city's Buszillas do not ease the traffic flow -- not so long as cars are permitted on city thoroughfares.

Extra-long Bus Stop …

Resting buses in the East Bronx

LPR would note, also, that cars coursed easily about city streets during a cab strike, nearly forty years ago.

4th Avenue Cab Convoy …

LPR was surprised to learn that the Bush
administration has approved some $350 million to study the feasibility of Mayor
Bloomberg's plan to impose an $8 charge on private cars that the venture below 96th Street in Manhattan, during working hours, Monday through Friday.

It is not clear to LPR how the charge will be imposed.

Will toll booths be set up that will likely create new TRAFFIC CONGESTION?

Will cars be required to sign up for E-Z pass, which will beam the charge as vehicles cross the 96th Street line -- with E-Z pass beams set up at the bridges and tunnels used by motorists from the four perimeter boroughs?

Indeed, will the mayor's plan renew calls to end the Greater New York City experiment of 1898, and have The Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens separate (or recombine, exclusive of Manhattan)?

For LPR, if the mayor's plan to make permanent the second-class status of The Boroughs Four is pursued, it should not be implemented with federal support.

If municipal traffic matters are not a municipal responsibility, what next --doing away with state sovereignty?

At 6th and 14th Street, looking East

Indeed, as LPR saw police no officer or traffic agent at the 6th Avenue and 14th Street intersection when a fire truck tried to get through the street fair-created TRAFFIC CONGESTION, LPR recommends that rather than the Mayor's plan to tax cars out of entering Manhattan -- the "TRAFFIC CONGESTION pricing" term being an insult to our intelligence--Gov. Spitzer should call out the National Guard to get traffic flowing through NYC.

And please note how a Buszilla encroached onto a 14th Street crosswalk when it was at the bus stop on 14th Street, just west of 6th Avenue. LPR has a hunch PVB would give a motorist a summons for that kind of thing.