First of all, though this is billed as a "pilot program", you will never see the NYC DOT determine that a "pilot program" was a failure - this closure to cars/pedestrianization of Broadway will be a permanent change. The "pilot program" thing is just for PR reasons to make it seem like they "tested" their plans. I think this is actually a good M.O. because when real tests are conducted and endless committees, groups, etc. have to approve or have a say in plans, nothing gets done. We are much better off with many experiments than with maintaining the status quo simply because it is too hard to make changes.
And this specific change, closing Broadway to cars and opening it to pedestrians, strikes me as a good one. There are tens of thousands of pedestrians in Times Square, and there is at present not nearly enough sidewalk space to accomodate them all. Moreover, Times Square is not simply a place pedestrians walk through to get elsewhere, it is a destination and spectacle in and of itself. There is currently a triangle of public space on the north end of Times Square that accomodates people waiting or watching and has tables and chairs (TKTS Booth), but that space is inadequate to handle the crush of tourists and office workers in Times Square every day.
In terms of cars, this plan claims to increase traffic speeds on 7th Avenue because there is no longer an awkard intersection between Broadway and 7th Avenue that slows downtown traffic. I would venture to guess that this is true, but it certainly was not the purpose of the plan- it is an added bonus. The plan was hatched as a pedestrianization scheme and then this speeding up of traffic was found to be an additional benefit. Though to be fair, the choice of closing the diagonal Broadway that interferes with the rectangular grid of Manhattan makes a lot of sense for traffic flow reasons. Ultimately, because Times Square is more valuable to pedestrians than to cars, this plan would be a good idea even if it slowed cars a bit (though perhaps not if it made it extremely slow for cars to move through this area). In any case, traffic predictions are a bit difficult to make because there is a sort of natural equilibrium where drivers, seeing there is traffic somewhere, either take another route or choose public transit- it's not like there will now be twice as many cars on 7th Avenue now that Broadway is closed in this section.
As for the specifics of the new, pedestrianized Broadway at Times Square, see Tom's TwitPic below for a glimpse of what it currently looks like.
Now this is patently not a well-designed public space. It's some chairs haphazardly thrown onto a concrete roadway. So critics will charge that this project is doomed to failure. But this is an unfair criticism because this is just a temporary treatment - once the permanent change is made, DOT will likely cover the space with a brown gravelly surface and put up chairs and tables as it has done at other pedestrian plazas, as at Madison Square:
If designed properly, this has the potential to be a great public space. I would include space for street performers (they already perform there so give them a more formal space) and street vendors to make the space more lively - just tables and chairs can be pleasant but is not that dynamic. But specifically, this is a great space because the way Times Square is laid out is such that there is a section in the middle from which one can observe the spectacular buildings on the perimeter. Prior to this street closure, there was only a small island from which to observe the buildings, but now there will be a larger area. Most great public spaces - the plazas of Rome, the pleins of Amsterdam, even NYC's own Washington Square - are organized as interior courtyards that look out onto wonderful surrounding buildings. Times Square could be even better if traffic were closed on 7th Avenue, creating a fully pedestrian "middle," but perhaps that would be too drastic in terms of traffic (I am not certain either way). This space will never be as charming as say, a Savannah Square or a Roman plaza- the buildings are too tall and garish, the area is dirty, etc. - but it can be an interesting, dynamic space and I applaud the DOT for making this change.
One final note- the DOT also closed Broadway to cars just south of Times Square (42nd- 36th Street), and this has been something of a failure despite nice tables and chairs being put there. First of all, there is no reason for pedestrians to be walking along that stretch of Broadway, let alone sitting down there - as opposed to the natural pedestrian draw of Times Square. Second, there is nothing interesting to look at along this stretch and the space is not really oriented toward anything or oriented at all, it's just a strip. Because it makes the street more walkable and attractive, and makes crossing the street easier and more pleasant, I am narrowly in favor of the sub-42nd Street closure, but just barely and I can certainly see the arguments against it. It's not an open-and-shut case, and the street closure program should be targeted more at places where plazas that pedestrians will actually use can be created (Herald Square, for instance). I'm not an anti-car zealot!
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