Super Eco

Photo credit: txd, flickr

In a move that quickens the hearts and warms the souls of pedestrians everywhere, New York's Times Square is going car-free. Can you believe it? No honking taxis, no snail's-pace crush of cars. Room for walking people to safely spread out a little. The slow-moving tide of fanny-packed tourist humanity, their necks craning to see the tall tall buildings above, gets to move a little faster.

It's an experiment, one that will last months (sounds like a summer thing), and it closes Broadway from 42nd Street north to 47th. Herald Square (Macy's) also gets a break: Broadway (again) is closed from 33rd to 35th.

(Not getting a break? Traffic cops at the closure points, waving off confused and exasperated drivers.)

We can envision whole car-free zones all over New York, a city that lends itself to walking and public transportation anyway.

Cities all over the world have car-free pedestrian zones:

• In Canada, Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal.
• In Austria, Vienna and Salzburg
• Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki
• In Belgium, Bruges and Ghent
• In France, many cities, including Lyon, Tours, Strasbourg, Sarlat (those tiny medieval lanes don't lend well to cars anyway) and Les Halles in Paris.
• In Germany, many cities, including Freiburg and Munich
• Lots of Greece
• Venice, areas in Florence
• In the U.S. certain islands like Michigan's Mackinac Island, resorts like Hilton Head, and smaller pedestrian zones in cities like Boulder, Portland, Charlottesville, and the skyway system in Minneapolis-St.Paul.

Your city not on the list? There are lots more we didn't mention.  Car-free zones bring people together, foster a sense of community, create town centers, help walkers breathe easier, and—of course—decrease a city's carbon footprint when people leave their cars and walk. Win-win.