New York City Becomes Car-Free Zone for Three Days

For three consecutive Saturdays this August, New York City's famous Park Avenue thoroughfare will close to all cars, trucks and other motorized transportation. The brainchild of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, "Summer Streets" will transform the streets into an open park featuring fitness, dance and yoga classes, as well as bicycle rentals.

Bloomberg calls it an experiment, and if it's successful (which we take to mean other parts of the city not devolving into traffic-coiled chaos) look for more car-free-zone days in the future. According to The New York Times, residents seem to like the idea for the most part. Some small-business owners, however, worry about the negative economic impact of closing 6.9 miles of Park Avenue on the busiest shopping day of the week.

New York is not the first major metropolitan city to try the idea of car-free zones for limited amounts of time. Paris, London and Bogota, Colombia, have all done something similar in hopes of encouraging alternative methods of transportation.

On 3 Days in August, City Will Try No-Car Zone (The New York Times)

Comments

Great Idea...Here in Denver, the city permently closed 16th st. It is closed the entire length of downtown. There are free shuttlebuses only that run up and down the street. It has turned into a major shopping and tourist area with thriving business. People love to come and just walk or bike around and shop or hang out.

I don't understand why small business owners would be against the move, wouldn't more pedestrian traffic in the area improve store sales, I mean the cars on the road are usually heading out somewhere else... having people loiter around and check out merchandise usually translates into more sales, right?

The reason that merchants are skeptical is because the closing of these roads will effectively block all autos trying enter midtown from the east.

A great number of shoppers and day tourists enter Manhattan via auto. The major shopping areas are more westerly than the closed streets, so motorists from Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island would face problems.

It could also negatively impact the Broadway theater and restaurants catering to theater goers. They are all on the west side. The majority of weekend theater goers from places other than Manhattan, come by car - unless they're part of the many group tours that come on buses.

The reason that merchants are skeptical is because the closing of these roads will effectively block all autos trying enter midtown from the east.

A great number of shoppers and day tourists enter Manhattan via auto. The major shopping areas are more westerly than the closed streets, so motorists from Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island would face problems.

It could also negatively impact the Broadway theater and restaurants catering to theater goers. They are all on the west side. The majority of weekend theater goers from places other than Manhattan, come by car - unless they're part of the many group tours that come on buses.

I love the idea. It would be a pleasure to walk it without having to fight the cars. I think the small business guys will get extra traffic from all the foot traffic. Much easier to stop in a store if you do not have to figure out how to dump the car first. If they did it here in Boston I would personally go into the city just to enjoy it.

I've always thought many cities in this country could benefit from pedestrianisation. Many other cities around the world have pedestrianised shopping districts and it leads to a far more relaxed and more pleasurable shopping experience. There is nothing worse than to have to cross a 6 lane street to get to a store on the other side.

I remember when there was some major building work occuring on Oxford St in london one sunday when i lived there. all traffic was stopped for half the length of the street and it was wonderful. the street was so quiet and it felt so much less busy when people weren't hemmed in to narrow sidewalks.

I think that, so long as there is adequate parking nearby, then it is good to close main shopping streets to traffic. In NY though, i dunno as there really doesnt seem to BE any parking there anyway!

Zerf and Mart: Actually, a lot of the area being closed in NYC has no shopping. The section of Park AVe shown in the Picture above - north of 42nd St. has NO stores. They're illegal there.

The section of Park Ave below 42nd St. is mostly office buildings and Apartment buildings. There are few stores other than delis, grocery stores and the like, which generally serve the office workers and apartment residents of the area.

The biggest shopping areas are from 5th Ave, westward.

Maxwell beat me to it, there's no retail in that neighborhood (Unless you count, ironicly the oldest Mercedes Benz dealer in the US.)

And who stays in NYC on the weekend in August? Rent Weekend At Bernies, city life in the summer is for the poor. And the people who live on Park Avenue are certainy not. They'll all be out in the Caymens, or up in the Berkshires, or the Hamptons, but they certainly won't be doing Yoga on Park and 63rd.

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