Anyone know why the hell there’s a traffic light interrupting 34th Street in Manhattan midway between 6th and 7th Avenues? (This is not a trick question involving Broadway; there is no street there, nor is there a fire station, police station, hospital, etc., anywhere in sight).
Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post
Maybe it was put up to facilitate pedestrian traffic between Macy’s and Gimbel’s? Back when there was a Gimbel’s across the street from Macy’s?
Uke
Macy’s
In the small city of Oswego, New York, which is bisected by the Oswego River, north-south streets are numbered sequentially east and west of the river, so that you have East and West 1st Streets paralleling the river on either side, with East and West 2nd Streets one block back, and so on. There is quite a long gap between East 9th and East 10th Streets, so when some developer placed a one-block-long cross street paralleling them and lying between them, guess what he called it?
Probably named it after himself. Developers are like that.
Polycarp, he couldn’t have named it 9-1/2 street. Could he?
Could he? 
The Cat In The Hat
In my home county, Mesa County, Colorado, the N/S roads are numbered in miles they are from the CO/UT border: 30 Rd. 29 3/4 Rd., etc. The E/W are alphabetical: A Rd., B Rd., etc. The latter are 1 mile between letters. Any in-between streets are fractional letters: E 1/2 Rd., F 3/4 Rd.
We lived on E 1/2 Rd. Numerous times, we got mail addressed East 5th St. (E.5 Rd), or even East Rood Ave. (Rood Ave being a street in town.)
None of the automatic address finders (like Switchboard.com) on the Internet can figure out the system.
There’s also a traffic light on 6th Avenue between 50th and 51st streets! Most of the cabbies run right through it, but apparently someone thought a pedestrian walkway was necessary in the middle of the short blocks.
Technically one isn’t allowed to cross 6th Ave on the north side of 50th street, but IMO it seems that putting the crosswalk halfway down the street is much more dangerous.
Mel, it’s part of Der Mayor’s master plan to ease Manhattan traffic congestion.
See, if pedestrians don’t cross at the intersection, cars can make left-hand turns, or something.
Oh, you got hit? Tough sh*t, buddy, buy a Mercedes.
Uke
My wife said she remembers the subject light going in after a rash of fatalities.
Washington DC, another algebraic city, has E 1/2 St and W 1/2 St.
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
In Ballwin, Missouri (a suburb of St. Louis), there is Steamboat Lane, a small street through a neighborhood of apartment homes. The street runs N&S from Manchester Rd. (a busy thoroughfare) about 2,000 yards to Kehrs Mill Rd. (another busy thoroughfare), with no streets intersecting it. Guess what? There’s a stop sign roughly in the middle of it. No intersection of any kind (not even a bike path!). My guess is that it’s there so local police can ticket people for not stopping at it. I understand that there are useless fire hydrants throughout NYC that are there for no reason other than so police can ticket people for parking too close to them. Maybe that explains your phantom street light in NYC.
Yeah, Uke, da mayor’s brilliant: Make a left turn and stop at the stoplight! Eases congestion every time - maybe that’s why there’s a perma-traffic cop there.
Actually I did get hit by a car service guy once (not at that intersection, though). A cop was directing the gridlocked traffic and even though I had a walk signal, told him to plow through the crosswalk. Needless to say, I wasn’t injured but kicked out the side light of the car and gave the cop a good finger in the face.
With so many programmers around it in Silicon Valley, how come San Jose doesn’t have a 0th Street?
Ray (Born there. Yer right. Warn’t nothin’ thar before an’ she’s gone downhill ever since.)
Did you confirm that with your dog? Or don’t they allow dogs in NYC anymore? Like the Apple went to them and Giuliani’s trying to get it back?
Ray