Kids Riding Bikes in Time Square? Shocking! Image courtesy of StreetsBlog.org

As part of the work of New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan  to retake city streets as public space, parts of Time and Herald Squares were closed in the last week to all automobile traffic indefinitely. This is part of an overall plan to reduce traffic by removing cars from Broadway between 42nd and 47th Streets. Sadik-Khan has done similar lane removals elsewhere to create places for people and improve general quality of life. Mayor Bloomberg has indicated that if this test is successful, the changes will become permanent. 

From Nicolai Ouroussoff at the New York Times: 

A large part of the design’s success stems from the altered relationship between the pedestrian and the structures that frame the square. Walking down the cramped, narrow sidewalks, a visitor could never get a feel for the vastness of the place. Now, standing in the middle of Broadway, you have the sense of being in a big public room, the towering billboards and digital screens pressing in on all sides.

This adds to the intimacy of the plaza itself, which, however undefined, can now function as a genuine social space: people can mill around, ogle one another and gaze up at the city around them without the fear of being caught under the wheels of a cab.

Great cities deserve great public spaces. Don’t you think it’s time Austin started making humans a priority over cars?