Midtown streets will be closed to cars on select holiday season days

Several of the busiest blocks in the heart of midtown Manhattan are being temporarily pedestrianized — and closed to automobiles — as New York City prepares for closer to a pre-pandemic volume of holiday season visitors.

In the time before the pandemic throttled tourism and in-person office work, an hourly holiday season peak of more than 20,000 tourists, office workers, shoppers and sightseers would cram Fifth Avenue, causing dangerous crowding and long standstills.

The city in 2019 considered banning automobiles from two of the avenue's five lanes between East 48th and East 51st streets, from shortly after Thanksgiving to shortly after New Year's.

Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio ultimately authorized a scaled-down closure of what had been proposed.

Now as tourists and office workers continue to return to the city, albeit at a slower-than-desired pace, Mayor Eric Adams announced the temporary closures — on Fifth Avenue, on Dec. 4, 11, and 18, from 12 p.m. until 6 p.m. from 48th Street to 57th streets. The stretch will be only open to pedestrians during these periods.

“In addition, throughout the entire holiday season, movable barriers will be placed on the east and west sides of Fifth Avenue, between 48th Street and 52nd Street. On days the street is not designated an Open Street, beginning in the early afternoon on weekdays and in the morning on weekends, these barriers will be used to repurpose a lane of traffic on each side of the avenue as additional pedestrian space," Adams' office wrote in a news release.

"To accommodate high pedestrian traffic, westbound vehicle right turns will be prohibited from Fifth Avenue onto 47th Street, 49th Street, or 51st Street,” his office added.

Also, starting with the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree next Wednesday and spanning through mid-January, West 49th Street and West 50th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues will be open only to pedestrians from 11 a.m. to midnight each day. 

A traffic lane on Sixth Avenue between 48th and 52nd streets will be reallocated for pedestrians during this period as well.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.