Madison Square to Actually Make Sense

While we've already mentioned the new pedestrian plaza currently being worked on just north of the Flatiron Building in the confusing clusterfuck of Madison Square, let's satisfy our inner Streetsblog geek and take a closer look at what the Department of Transportation has planned. A tipster writes:

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership had their annual meeting this morning. The DOT presented the plan for the new pedestrian space, bike lanes and traffic pattern for the intersection of Broadway, 5th Avenue and 23rd Street, i.e., the intersection just north of the Flatiron Building. Construction is well under way. At the very least, tourists will have a nice spot from which to snap that iconic image of the Flatiron Building as viewed from the north.

Indeed, the project?in addition to the new bike lanes, direct and shorter crosswalks, 50,000 square feet of public plaza space and simpler traffic patterns?will also keep tourists out of the streets when photographing the Flatiron, removing the pressure of figuring out how many points one gets for running them down. Another tipster forwarded us DOT's presentation to Community Board 5 on the plan, some selections from which can be seen above. Or hey, download the whole PDF!
· CurbedWire: Jersey Goes Upscale, New Flatiron Plaza [Curbed]