TRAFFIC ON FIFTH AVENUE.

The New York Times
January 3, 1900

President Guggenheimer Renews the Fight to Exclude Trucks.

President Guggenheimer began yesterday a new effort to restrict traffic on Fifth Avenue by introducing in the Council an ordinance requiring truck and all vehicles except those used for pleasure driving to remain off that thoroughfare between Twenty-fifth and Fifty-ninth Streets between the hours of 2 and 7 P. M., and off the avenue north of Fifty-ninth Street at all hours.  The ordinance was referred to the Committee on Streets and Highways without debate.  This committee held for over a year a similar ordinance proposed by Mr. Guggenheimer and declined to make any report, despite the fact that several hearings were held.

Mr. Guggenheimer, in speaking of the new ordinance, declared that it was his purpose to push his efforts to a conclusion at an early day.  If the Council would do nothing, he said, he would go to the Legislature for relief.  This city, he said, was the only one of all the large municipalities in the country which had no street the use of which was restricted to pleasure driving during a part at least of every day.  The objection to the measure, he said, did not come from owners of property fronting on Fifth Avenue, but from residents of adjacent streets, who feared that the traffic would be diverted onto those thoroughfares.  Such a selfish objection, he insisted, should not be permitted to interfere with a reform that would be of benefit to all residents of the city, and if the local lawmakers were afraid to do their duty, he would see if the State Legislature could not be prevailed upon to do something.