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What about a semi-pedestrianized zone? When I visited Denver, they had that long street filled with restaurants/shops, but with a free hop on/hop off shuttle. Perfect for tired shoppers or those who work in that zone.
Philadelphia's Chestnut street at one time was pedestrian only except for public busses (not free). Still great for pedestrians. Not sure if it's still that way, though.
I've been in a number of European cities that had pedestrian zones or streets, and as a tourist, I loved it! Not sure what it was like for those who lived there and had to circumvent those zones.
Burdick Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan is widely regarded as the first pedestrian mall in America. It opened in 1959, and over the next two decades 200 American cities followed suit, converted some blocks of their downtown to pedestrian only streets. As of 2005, only 20 of the original 200 pedestrian malls were still traffic-free. Burdick Street introduced cars back in 1998. Here is a picture of Burdick Street taken in 1960.
The Kalamazoo Pedestrian Mall was almost 40 years old when it was closed
and reopened to car traffic for the first time in 1998. I don't see how it could be called a failure
overall given how long it has been in operation as a pedestrian zone.
Philadelphia tried a transitway/pedestrian way on Chestnut street and it really did not go well - may have been part of the rimes as this was in the 80s when the DT was at its bottom
It has since re-opened to cars and is busier than ever with pedestrians
I think a lot depends on the circumstances. Philly is a very pedestrian friendly city to begin with so mostly no need open up to pedestrian only.
I have seen pedestrian streets work well though - like the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica or Washinton Street in Cape May NJ
Nice way to stereotype people. Boulder is a college town with very high student population.
That might be because they are students. Not to say that students don't work, because many obviously do.
Well, I've only lived in Boulder County for 33 years. You would know better, of course. There are a lot of people in Boulder who seemingly have no visible means of support. If you lived here, you'd know that.
I've visited several successful pedestrian (or transit) malls in college towns. Among the best are:
State Street in Madison, WI. It extends approximately 7-8 blocks from the state Capitol to the UW campus and is lined with lots of restaurants, bars and retailers (many of which are independently owned).
Charlottesville, VA has a very successful, pedestrian only mall: generally a similar feel to State Street, but further from the University of Virginia campus.
Much smaller, and maybe more similar to what you're thinking of is Iowa City. Adjacent to the University of Iowa campus, the mall is along two streets (College and Dubuque). Iowa city had a large enclosed shopping mall in their downtown during the '80s and '90s. I think it was reasonably successful, but then a huge mall was built at Coralville (which was west of Iowa city and convenient to Cedar Rapids) and the mall lost most of its retail tenants. The pedestrian mall seemed reasonably during the 3 or 4 times I visited it over the past decade.
Church street in Burlington, VT is another successful pedestrian mall.
Sparks Street in Ottawa is a pedestrian mall. It didn't make much of an impression on me, as most of the retail activity was on the other side of downtown, near Byward Market.
Well, I've only lived in Boulder County for 33 years. You would know better, of course. There are a lot of people in Boulder who seemingly have no visible means of support. If you lived here, you'd know that.
LOL, no, trust-funders! Seriously, most are students, or people out for recreation. The number who actually bike to work is fairly small. Higher than in some other places, but still small.
Take note, from the link: "College towns and cities often rank high on this list, as students and faculty of universities often live very close to their place of employment if on-campus or close to campus."
And I'd love to know how this question was asked. Does this mean someone who has biked to work a minimum number of days or what? It will reliably snow 6 months of the year (Nov-April) and the only months it has never snowed are July and August, when there aren't as many students (or faculty) around. I just now asked DH about people biking to his work in Boulder and he said there are about 4 or 5, out of a total of ~200.
The Kalamazoo Pedestrian Mall was almost 40 years old when it was closed
and reopened to car traffic for the first time in 1998. I don't see how it could be called a failure
overall given how long it has been in operation as a pedestrian zone.
A pedestrian mall in Ashtabula, Ohio was opened in 1979 and returned to vehicle traffic by 1983. Of the 200 pedestrian malls, only about 20 remain. That's not a high success rate.
I have seen pedestrian streets work well though - like the 3rd street promenade in Santa Monica or Washinton Street in Cape May NJ
Yes -- those are nice!
Another idea is time-limited pedestrian streets. Doesn't Bourbon St. in New Orleans close to traffic on Friday/Sat. nights? And then the street next to it is closed to cars on Sundays? In Philadelphia, one of the river drives is closed to cars on weekends for the runners/cyclists to enjoy. No impact on workday commuters.
Charlottesville VA has pedestrianized several blocks of its old main street. You can add that to your research.
Knoxville TN has a pedestrian mall called market square that is hugely successful at the moment, it is essentially one long block with a plaza in the middle where the market house used to stand.
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