What is the future of 5th Avenue?

What would a more pedestrian-friendly 5th Avenue look like?

A new proposal would make one of the busiest streets in Manhattan less filled with traffic and more pedestrian-friendly.

NEW YORK - It’s an iconic corridor: Fifth Avenue is known for its luxury stores and during the holiday season- it’s packed crowds.

Past mayors have tried to reinvent this area and failed, but this time around stakeholders believe that it can actually get done.

"It is so crushing with the crowds that come into that area," City Councilman Keith Powers said. "We’ve been talking since I was first elected to the city council about implementing a plan that would address the high amounts of pedestrian traffic."

Mayor Eric Adams released renderings in December, marking out how he wants to reimagine 5th Avenue between Bryant Park and Central Park.

Adams' plan preserves two lanes for buses and reduces the number of lanes for private vehicles from three to one.

It also adds a bike lane, widens sidewalks, and creates more green space.

People walk along Fifth Avenue during the Open Streets program on December 18, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Liao Pan/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Since this area serves roughly 115,000 bus riders each weekday, Danny Pearlstein with Riders Alliance says it’s important to maintain and improve bus service in this area.

"The community of Fifth Avenue is not just Midtown," Pearlstein explained. "It's not just Bryant Park. It's not just Central Park. It starts in the Bronx. When people get on the bus that they take to Lower Manhattan they travel down Fifth Avenue. The whole city has an interest in a Fifth Avenue that works better for bus riders, and we intend to hold the mayor accountable for that vision."

While some have tossed around the idea of a pedestrian-only corridor, Dan Biederman, President of the Bryant Park Corporation says that it will be important to maintain at least some sort of private car access.

The association, along with other Midtown stakeholders such as Fifth Avenue Association and the Grand Central Partnership, is helping fund the redesign and in return will have input in how the area will be reshaped.

"I don’t think it can ever be converted to only buses or only pedestrians," Biederman said. "It will need one, maybe two lanes. That’s where the fight will be."

But Biederman along with other stakeholders say it is far past time to transform 5th Avenue.

Especially since businesses along this corridor are vital to the city’s economy.

"The lack of trees, signs, lighting - is all very old, needs to be re-done," Biederman said. So it’s great they’re thinking of redoing it. Obviously at Bryant Park, we love the idea of linking Brian Park in Central Park and making a big deal of that."

The Adams administration will look to identify and implement early action improvements to Fifth Avenue this year and then in two years they will release a complete construction plan.