5 Cities Going Big on Pedestrianization

Tactical urbanism this ain't

Philadelphia piloted pedestrianization on a five-block stretch of Walnut Street

When trying to change a city, it can be easiest to start with small pilot projects. Just paint a bike lane, or put up a few traffic cones, and you can change a block. For the past two decades, many cities have embraced the ethos of “lighter, quicker, cheaper” — a phrase embraced by Project for Public Spaces to “describe the simple, short-term, and low-cost solutions that are having remarkable impacts on the shaping of neighborhoods and cities.”

Small pilots are important. Here in Philadelphia, Center City District recently partnered with Rittenhouse Row to pedestrianize a five-block stretch of Walnut Street over the course of four weekends. Philly is not alone in piloting car-free streets: this past summer, several cities including Vancouver, Madison, and Alexandria pedestrianized blocks for weeks at a time. These pilots enabled cities to understand how the public really uses car-free streets before investing in new permanent infrastructure.

But while there will always be a need for pilots to understand what does and doesn’t work, some cities have already done their user testing. Instead, they figure they need to go big or going home. The stakes are existential – if cities do not offer an experience palpably different and better than suburbs and towns, many people will ask “Why live there?” And if people don’t show up in person, many of the local businesses that need foot traffic won’t survive. Those twin concerns are fueling several larger scale pedestrianization efforts in cities across the U.S. and the U.K.

Here are five cities that are putting big money and big efforts into major pedestrianization projects.

New York City

A rendering of NY’s Fifth Avenue with more space for pedestrians

Recently New York City announced that it will be spending $350 million on a renovation of 20 blocks of prime Fifth Avenue. The famed shopping boulevard accommodates more than 5,400 pedestrians per hour — a number that rises to more than 20,000 pedestrians per hour during the holiday season.

The renovation will turn two lanes of traffic into expanded sidewalks, which at more than 33 feet wide will be nearly 50 percent larger than they are now. Bigger sidewalks will also mean shorter and safer pedestrian crossings at intersections. The redesign builds off a pilot during previous holiday seasons where pedestrianized streets led to an estimated $3 million in additional spending, or a 6.6 percent increase compared with similar blocks not opened to pedestrians.

According to the city, the expense “is projected to pay for itself in less than five years through increased property and sales tax revenue.”

London

Last month Mayor Sadiq Khan declared that he’ll be pushing for a pedestrianized Oxford Street. Unlike Fifth Avenue which seems to have a healthy retail scene, Oxford Street has seen a decline in shopping over the years. According to the New West End Company, a business improvement district that encompasses Oxford Street, foot traffic is down 20 percent

since 2019, while vacancy is up. Into this vacuum, numerous “gaudy US candy shops” have taken up retail space on the block, often illegally selling vaping supplies and potentially engaged in money laundering. (If you want to go down a hole in the internet, Google these candy stores and you, too, can learn that Swedish Fish and Jolly Ranchers are illegal in the U.K., among other facts) To address some of the retail woes, the city has created a project called Meanwhile On: Oxford Street, that offers reduced rent to local entrepreneurs if they’ll help elevate the quality of storefronts.

As with many pedestrianization projects, this one has been tried before. Back in 2016, Khan proposed a similar pedestrianization effort, but the city council vetoed the project citing a lack of public enthusiasm. Khan now plans to use a Mayoral Development Corporation, a rarely used entity to force the project through. It’s estimated to cost nearly $200 million, and Khan says, "local businesses, private funders and new revenue streams could foot the bill.”

San Francisco 

SF’s Upper Great Highway pedestrianized during Halloween

San Francisco’s Upper Great Highway moonlights as a pedestrian boulevard, but on weekdays is a busy roadway. In this November’s election, Proposition K puts the question to the public of whether or not to keep it pedestrianized 365 days a year. If so, the two-mile stretch would be the largest pedestrian project in the whole state of California. As climate change threatens the beach near the highway, and sandstorms cause road closures regularly, the road itself is looking less viable into the future.

But the city is bitterly divided about it. Anti-car advocates are cheering the closure and local businesses believe they’ll see more activity from pedestrians. But they’re pitted against local residents who fear increased traffic and others who question if this is the best place for pedestrianization.

But the question might be: can San Francisco, poster child of post-pandemic decline, afford to continue the status quo?