It’s curtains for vehicles along Broadway in Times Square — and other major streets may soon get a taste of pedestrian friendliness.
Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said pedestrian plazas created last May at Times and Herald squares had improved traffic flow and safety enough to have him make them permanent and consider similar roadway closures along other congested thoroughfares.
“It doesn’t mean one size fits all, but I think it’s encouraging that we’re getting merchants from other parts of the city saying, ‘Can you please do this for us as well?’ ” Bloomberg said at a press conference.
Business and civic groups at Union Square, along Broadway on the Upper West Side and along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens have asked about developing plazas to cut down on traffic congestion and increase walking space.
Bloomberg said he’d consider any proposals but cautioned, “There’s very few places where closing streets would work in terms of improving traffic.”
Next up is a makeover for Herald and Times squares, said city Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. By summer, the promenades will get paint jobs and newer sidewalks.
And by 2014, the city will spend $18 million — some of it federal money — to purchase swankier street tables and chairs and configure the spaces to stage special events.
The DOT studied traffic statistics along the closed sections for four months.
GPS data from 1.1 million yellow-cab rides in the area bounded by Fifth and Ninth avenues and 59th and 23rd streets showed that travel times decreased overall by 7 percent, Bloomberg said.
Uptown driving sped up most, gaining an additional average 1.1 miles per hour and decreasing travel times by 17 percent.
But motorists heading downtown faced travel-time increases averaging 2 percent.
Eastbound trips sped up by 5 percent and westbound trips by 9 percent, the results show.
But data compiled from 5,700 rides taken by DOT analysts showed far worse crosstown results, with 13 percent slowdowns in both directions.
Bloomberg acknowledged that some travel times — the main thrust of his argument to create the pedestrian plazas — fell short of his prediction last year that downtown travel times would improve by 17 percent and uptown rides by 37 percent.
But traffic safety improved, the mayor said. Accidents were down 39 percent.