Summer Streets

PLAY.RUN.WALK.BIKE.BREATHE.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND DOT COMMISSIONER SADIK-KHAN ANNOUNCE "SUMMER STREETS," A CAR-FREE CITY ROUTE FOR HEALTH AND RECREATION

For Three Saturdays in August, Route from Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park Will Open

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today announced Summer Streets, a new City program that will temporarily open a 6.9 mile car-free route from the Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street. Featuring connections to Central Park and other open spaces, Summer Streets will give New Yorkers unprecedented access to the streets for exercise and exploration from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on three consecutive Saturdays in August, the 9th, 16th and 23rd.

"We anticipate that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors will take advantage of streets temporarily opened for recreation," said Mayor Bloomberg. "We hope the Summer Streets experiment will become as much a part of the New York experience as strolling the Coney Island boardwalk, participating in the 5-borough bike tour, or listening to the Philharmonic in the park."


Copenhagen, Venice, Paris, Bogota, and Tokyo are just some of the cities that have had programs like this for decades. Not only are they socially and environmentally friendly, but they make shopping on a weekend semi-enjoyable again.
Forget biking. As a resident of NYC, at times I find myself falling into a pit of despair at the thought of walking through some of the more crowded shopping areas of the city - forget shopping in them.
For a brief and forgettable period I worked in the area between Herald and Times Squares, and just navigating the foot traffic on the sidewalks was enough to make me hate humanity.
I'm totally psyched for this. Not as a cyclist, it will probably be too crowded to cycle, but just as a New Yorker.
I can't wait to take a nice walk.

Pedestrian's Paradise,
originally uploaded by Stardog Champion.

"For the last 35 years, on Sundays and Holidays, Tokyo closes off the main streets in the Akihabara shopping district to car traffic, creating a foot-friendly mall. 'Hokosha Tengoku' - translates roughly to 'Pedestrian Paradise'"