For those who don't know how ridiculously narrow the streets are down there this a typical stretch of Nassau Street:
https://www.nybits.com/images/photo/nassau_street_01.jpg
So how do deliveries work to businesses on Nassau Street when you eliminate parking? They don't matter? What happens to the price of goods when their delivery becomes much more expensive? The block that does have parking on both sides of the street on Nassau is used extensively for deliveries. In fact if you do a Google Street view of it you will see a Fed Ex truck parked there. Arguably an important thing in an area that is largely financial companies and law offices.
On street view I see maybe one delivery truck per block. Otherwise a very large portion of the street is dedicated to empty car storage. You've seen delivery zone parking before, right? The entire problem is how much space private vehicles take up versus the amount of public space that is available to people. The imbalance is huge and unfair and it's a matter of when, not if, that balance is going to be adjusted to a reasonable state.
I know that area like the back of my hand. I was no doubt down-voted by someone sitting thousands of miles away from Manhattan someone who probably doesn't know the area at all.
There seems to be a real binary attitude on Hacker News that if you say anything that doesn't completely agree with the "we need more bikes!" crowd that you are automatically a horrible anti-environmental person. It's very knee jerk reactionary.
I absolutely hate the amount of cars on the street. The reality however is that there are many other complications, practicalities and nuances to consider and I have tried to bring some of these up. Just saying "more bikes no cars!" is really naive.
I recommend sitting in on a city planning meeting in NYC or talking to someone from the D.O.T some time about these issues. I have done both on more than a few occasions. There are so many unique challenges of an island of this density that there is no one solution.
I will also mention that there was a multi year project to widen sidewalks around Astor Place and Cooper Union in lower Manhattan recently. This is nearly complete. And the result is that this has done nothing to reduce the congestion on the street.
There are already dedicated bike lines. The article even states:
"But as more pedestrians and cyclists filled the streets, she had to concentrate to avoid running into anyone or being run into"
A contributor to that crowdedness is the amount of other bikes and pedestrians.
And why on earth get rid of Taxis? There are plenty of legitimates needs for Taxis. Trains break regularly and there is always MTA maintenance where your train is not actually running or the route is being altered during maintenance to the point that it can't not get you where you need to go. Taxis are still the best way of getting to and from the cities airports.
Lower Manhattan is the oldest part of the city, the streets like John Street and Nassau mentioned in the article are typical of the area. They actually predate cars. They are single lane streets that are the narrowest in the city. They were designed during the era where horse and buggies were the dominant mode of transport.
It is not possible to widen the side walks. So no the solution is not to cut into space on the road. Those roads have businesses on them that need to get deliveries.
While I am big proponent of alternative transportation, just blindly stating "more bikes, less cars!" is a hugely naive oversimplification.