Santa's Elves have been enlisted to help ease holiday traffic

NEW YORK CITY -- New York holiday gridlock is so bad the city has brought on Santa's elves to help.

Around the Holland Tunnel area the elves will function as Pedestrian Traffic Managers as part of the PTM program. Besides spreading good cheer they will ensure that pedestrians cross busy streets safely.

The program was developed by the Hudson Square Connection to make Varick, Spring and Hudson streets more accessible to people. Since the program started:

Blockage of crosswalks has decreased by 43%

Blockage of intersections has decreased by 61%

Honking has decreased by 53%

The elves are from La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and besides monitoring traffic they will perform festive tunes.