[Justin10000]

+1

That street is incredibly well executed. What's notable about that that street too is the quality of stores on it. And the number of bars and restaurants.

Contrast that to Sparks St in Ottawa. That place shuts down at 6pm. There aren't enough bars and restaurants to keep things going past 6pm. And there aren't any stores good enough to encourage people to stay around after hours. And there aren't enough residents nearby to keep the street active (unlinke the students in Burlington). It takes a lot more than just taking away the cars.

Sparks Street Mall is depressing in the winter.

 

[CityPainter]

My experiences with pedestrian malls in Europe are mostly mixed. They tend to be simply shopping districts, luring mostly tourists. At night they are creepy and quiet. Locals hang out elsewhere.

Personally, I think the most naturally vibrant areas are those that combine all types of transportation, including pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and yes, cars. Rather than demonizing cars entirely, let them stay, but on terms that make them less dominating. Widen the sidewalks and provide benches for trees and shade. Ensure lots of well marked crosswalks and time the signals for all-way pedestrian crossing as at Yonge/Dundas. Remove street parking and add bike lanes and bike racks. Don't make it impossible for cars; just make it so they are not the default go-to form of getting around a neighbourhood. You can see this sort of thing happening naturally in neighborhoods like Kensington Market, where cars are usually drastically outnumbered by pedestrians, and hence have to wait for them rather than the opposite.

 

[Chuck]

Instead of pedestrian malls, which has a rather mixed track record in terms of successes, why not consider Woonerfs instead? a single lane, two way roadway with slow traffic and a generous pedestrian realm probably works just as well while maintaining flexiblity and access. A few removable bollards at strategic locations can turns the road into pedestrian only when circumstances demands.

AoD

You beat me to it, but this is my view as well. The best streets have a balance of everything - wide sidewalks, bike infrastructure, and yes, cars. When too much priority is given to any single mode, that's when things start to break down. Having been to New York twice since Broadway was pedestrianized, I have found except for the heart of the Times Square which is essentially a plaza, pedestrians tend to gravitate more toward 7th Avenue - which carries 6 lanes of traffic, than Broadway, which is car free.

 

[junctionist]

A successful pedestrianized should be district, not just one anomaly of a street. It should have businesses and institutions that are open at different times of the day, and it needs to be dense. It should attract locals and tourists at different times of the day.

What makes these areas great is that when they're successful, they're vibrant without the immediate air pollution of cars and the noise.

 

[kettal]

Montreal is going on a Car-free street binge... from the Gazette:

######################

Pedestrianization is all the rage in Montreal. Sections of downtown, Old Montreal, Mount Royal and the Plateau Mont Royal borough are going car-free.

From May 26 to Sept. 14, Ste. Catherine St. will be a pedestrian-only promenade between Papineau Ave. and Berri St. That's the same area covered in 2009, but the car ban will run one week longer this year. Plus, from June 18 to Sept. 7, St. Paul St. E., between St. Laurent Blvd. and Bonsecours St. in Old Montreal, will be closed to cars. Last year, a shorter strip of St. Paul was closed but only for three weekends and the two-week construction holiday.

The Ville Marie borough says it may also close McTavish St., near McGill University, and part of Clark St. in Chinatown.

In addition, the city of Montreal has decided it will permanently close part of Mount Royal to vehicles starting next year, a city official told the 24 Heures newspaper this week. The southern part of Remembrance Rd. (the west-to-east part, which runs from Côte des Neiges Rd. to the roundabout near Smith House) will be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists. It'll be part of a $25-million reconstruction of the Remembrance/Côte des Neiges interchange, the city says. That's not good enough for Plateau borough mayor Luc Ferrandez, who wants cars completely banned from Mount Royal.

Speaking of Ferrandez, this week he announced he's moving ahead with a plan to bar cars from parts of his borough. Next month, the Plateau will permanently close one block of St. Dominique St., between Laurier Ave. and St. Joseph Blvd. On Thursdays, the strip will be turned into a farmer's market. Ferrandez, elected under the Projet Montréal banner, said he plans to permanently close 10 to 15 other Plateau streets this year. He's not yet ready to say which ones. Ferrandez also wants to change the direction of several streets in an effort to keep through traffic off residential streets.

###################


http://www.montrealgazette.com/free+streets+Bixi+bellyaching+underground+skating/3001544/story.html

 

[urbandreamer]

Well, St Paul definitely makes sense. Montreal's built form works better for this sort of trend. Toronto? Not a chance.

 

[junctionist]

Closing 10-15 streets? That's perhaps the only vision in Canada that can be described as a "war on cars" without sounding ridiculous. It sounds quite interesting.

 

[MisterF]

+1

That street is incredibly well executed. What's notable about that that street too is the quality of stores on it. And the number of bars and restaurants.

Contrast that to Sparks St in Ottawa. That place shuts down at 6pm. There aren't enough bars and restaurants to keep things going past 6pm. And there aren't any stores good enough to encourage people to stay around after hours. And there aren't enough residents nearby to keep the street active (unlinke the students in Burlington). It takes a lot more than just taking away the cars.

All the bars and restaurants are on William St, Ottawa's other, more successful pedestrian street that nobody talks about.

Well, St Paul definitely makes sense. Montreal's built form works better for this sort of trend. Toronto? Not a chance.

Looks like the Montreal ones are only for the summer, something that could easily happen (and has happened) in Toronto. There are plenty of streets in Toronto that could be pedestrianized or woonerf-ized.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I just heard about a temporary pedestrian mall on Yonge Street between Gerrard Street and Dundas. See this link. Only a short time however.

Yonge St. remained closed to vehicles between Dundas. St. and Gerrard St., but pedestrians were being allowed into the area even as city engineers checked surrounding buildings for damage as a result of the blaze at 335 Yonge St.

Might as well put it to some good turn.

Sort of a pedestrian mall:

 

[reaperexpress]

We can design roads so to favour pedestrians and cyclists without necessarily banning cars. For example, highway onramps and roundabouts force pedestrians to wait for a gap to cross, whereas at 4 way stop signs, cars must wait for the pedestrian to cross.

Here's a photo I took of a minor residential street in Houten, The Netherlands. The sign reads: "Bicycle street. Cars are guests". The sign on top indicates a dead end for cars up ahead, where the street becomes a bike trail.

This road configuration allows people to get to their driveways by car, but puts the bicycle as the default way of getting around.

 

[M II A II R II K]

Once popular, these car-free zones are slowly disappearing from the urban landscape


December 2011

By Tod Newcombe

Read More: http://www.governing.com/columns/urban-notebook/trouble-with-pedestrian-malls.html


Buffalo’s 25-year-old pedestrian and transit-only mall has a problem: As in so many similar spaces across the country, there just aren’t enough pedestrians. So the city in upstate New York has applied for a federal grant to turn the mall back into a road. Exit people. Enter cars. Buffalo isn’t the only city to toss in the towel on car-free streets. Sacramento, Calif., which has a shared pedestrian and transit mall that dates back more than 40 years, has recently let cars back onto K Street. In recent years, many mid-sized cities like Eugene, Ore., and Raleigh, N.C., have turned away from pedestrian malls, as have big cities, such as Chicago and Washington, D.C.

- America’s first downtown pedestrian mall appeared in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1959. At their height, more than 200 cities blocked off traffic in prime downtown business districts in hopes that by removing cars and trucks, people would flock to the city and bring life to retail and business districts facing decline. But many of the pedestrian malls were ill-planned and had little purpose. Because so few people lived downtown, the malls became lifeless after work, attracting crime and loiterers, rather than large crowds. According to some estimates, of all the pedestrian malls that have dotted American cities in past years, fewer than 15 percent remain today.

- “I don’t think the idea of separating people from cars in cities is a failed concept,” says Yonah Freemark, who has written extensively about pedestrian malls for various publications. Cities that have growing residential populations in downtown areas as well as hubs of activities can generate the kind of traffic that makes a mall thrive. Cities that lack downtown populations have also found that creating temporary pedestrian places can bring a buzz and excitement that people expect to find when they visit a city. Malls can work, if done the right way, explains Freemark. Just don’t take the cookie-cutter approach to building malls as so many cities have -- with disappointing results.

.....

 

[drum118]

Once popular, these car-free zones are slowly disappearing from the urban landscape


December 2011

By Tod Newcombe

Read More: http://www.governing.com/columns/urban-notebook/trouble-with-pedestrian-malls.html


Buffalo’s 25-year-old pedestrian and transit-only mall has a problem: As in so many similar spaces across the country, there just aren’t enough pedestrians. So the city in upstate New York has applied for a federal grant to turn the mall back into a road. Exit people. Enter cars. Buffalo isn’t the only city to toss in the towel on car-free streets. Sacramento, Calif., which has a shared pedestrian and transit mall that dates back more than 40 years, has recently let cars back onto K Street. In recent years, many mid-sized cities like Eugene, Ore., and Raleigh, N.C., have turned away from pedestrian malls, as have big cities, such as Chicago and Washington, D.C.

- America’s first downtown pedestrian mall appeared in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1959. At their height, more than 200 cities blocked off traffic in prime downtown business districts in hopes that by removing cars and trucks, people would flock to the city and bring life to retail and business districts facing decline. But many of the pedestrian malls were ill-planned and had little purpose. Because so few people lived downtown, the malls became lifeless after work, attracting crime and loiterers, rather than large crowds. According to some estimates, of all the pedestrian malls that have dotted American cities in past years, fewer than 15 percent remain today.

- “I don’t think the idea of separating people from cars in cities is a failed concept,†says Yonah Freemark, who has written extensively about pedestrian malls for various publications. Cities that have growing residential populations in downtown areas as well as hubs of activities can generate the kind of traffic that makes a mall thrive. Cities that lack downtown populations have also found that creating temporary pedestrian places can bring a buzz and excitement that people expect to find when they visit a city. Malls can work, if done the right way, explains Freemark. Just don’t take the cookie-cutter approach to building malls as so many cities have -- with disappointing results.

.....

If you visit the downtown of Buffalo, its a dead zone 7/24 with most places empty.

At Noon, you can roll a bowling ball down the street and not hit anyone.

Go a block or 3 on either side of the mall, you have run down, empty buildings or plain lots.

If you don't have the employment, residential, business, shops, entertainment and etc in a mall area 7/20, its going to die.

The Buffalo mall was too wide in the first place and wider than Yonge St, as well being too long.

Having a block up to 5, depending on the distance between them, is all you need.

Most US Cities don't have many people living in the mall area in the first place nor close to it.

During our planning on Cherry St EA before going to the public, we looked at closing Cherry St to traffic between Mills and Front and was met with strong opposition from the City Traffic engineer for the study. All he saw was traffic and another through street not meeting the needs of the local community including the plan new development. Waterfronttoronto supported the idea, but was shot down by strong opposition from the city.

 

[quicksilver]

Here's an image of the Burlington VT pedestrian-only Church Street mall from last spring. I arrived toward dusk and it was largely empty but during the daytime, or when warmer, I can see how it would be well appreciated. I was impressed by the quality of the city infrastructure (downtown) for such a small city, the stone and collonaded buildings. And it's not even the state capital.

 

[adma]

Burlington's proof how in practice, ped malls are most successful in campus towns and compact "cultural class" nucleii.

 

[quicksilver]

Burlington's proof how in practice, ped malls are most successful in campus towns and compact "cultural class" nucleii.

I respectfully disagree. Here's an image of Hong Kong's night market, a pedestrian mall on Sai Yeung Choi Street.

I think pedestrian-only areas can work in big and small cities, and anything in between. They are long overdue in Toronto.