Pedestrian Streets

Many great communities have pedestrian streets (also known as pedestrian plazas or pedestrian malls). A pedestrian street is car-free, serves as a meeting place (both spontaneous and planned), and provides space for commerce, music, art, and other community activities. These places are essential for livability.

 Pedestrian plazas help create a 'sense of place' in a community.

 
Another example of a pedestrian street, this one in Zakopane, Poland- on a quiet Sunday morning.

In this picture the plaza serves as a flea market and gathering space on a weekend morning. Many cities have plazas that serve the function of a farmers market- sometimes every morning of the week.

The pedestrian mall in Burlington, Vermont (Church Street).

  A very skinny pedestrian street in Ketchikan, Alaska (Creek Street).

Back to Green Streets

Links:

MIST paper: 'The Revival of the Pedestrian Mall: Successful Models for Missoula, Montana'

www.culturechange.org/issue14/pedestrianmall.html
an article on 'Creating Pedestrian Malls'

An Urban Design Project:
streetswithoutcars.wordpress.com