10 Steps to a Stunning Car-Free Street

Something we don’t really understand is why Montreal pulls the plug on its wildly successful pedestrian streets so early, especially the extremely popular Mont-Royal Avenue, which starts to be taken down in early September. We see why the city’s cold and snowy winters are a particular challenge for pedestrian streets, requiring some creativity and planning if they’re going to work year round, but September and October are pretty nice and they seem like a no-brainer. But as we say goodbye to these lively linear parks, what exactly makes a good pedestrian street? Once you take cars off the road, how do you make the best of the space?
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[@YanMorin]

You really feel the "old ways of thinking" of the city when they use open/close words in their communications. It should be "opening" the street when you can walk/bike/run/shop/be active there, and "closing" the street when you can't and it becomes stressful, noisy, polluted and dangerous.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

BINGO!

[@leopoldleoleo]

I biked past both Mont Royal and Ontario in Hochelaga yesterday and i was just so sad. It kinda hurts the psyche to see your environment get significantly less pleasant from one day to the next. There’s no way around the fact that I’m simply not going to spend as much time in those places from now on.

[@act_sion]

Still do not understand why they do not wait for mid of October to remove all the installations including the plants .

[@scpatl4now]

Pedestrianized streets are such a pleasant place to go to and hang out, shop, or socialize with friends. I think a misconception by many small businesses is that they might lose business. I think it ends up being just the opposite.

[@faustinpippin9208]

if you pedestrianize only one street the business will be better off, but if you would do it everywhere in a town/city then you will hurt most business you see the Pedestrianized streets being a success because they are rare and typically in a dense city which means people from close by can come by foot, someone who was arriving there by car wont go there anymore when there is no parking If they can park near-by on a normal street then you end up dumping a lot of cars into one place which makes the "problem" of cars being worse i hope you understand

[@Zartren]

This works well when truly downtown when there are lots of attractions around, or in dense residential areas. It also mostly favours proximity businesses. There are certain types of businesses that would just suffer and close down, or have to move if they can afford it, because having a vehicle is essential: think home renovation and large furniture stores, for example. Plenty of lead time before changing a street this way and supporting those businesses in moving to more car friendly streets might be essential if pedestrianization expands a lot. You can always make more commercial streets better for bikes, especially cargo bikes, without entirely removing cars. Still, pretty sure every dense residential neighborhood could support at least one such street. After all, you normally wouldn't want to go far for a proximity business anyway. Cars are often more a detriment to them. Having plenty of pedestrianized streets isn't a problem in itself. You just need to support other types of businesses that need to move in the process and find streets that are truly better off pedestrianized.

[@RealConstructor]

In my country the shops flourish in pedestrianized areas. Probably because car people don’t shop, but do errants, they only buy at the store they can park in front of, buy something and off they go. Pedestrians walk by shop windows and see something they want, buy it and go on shopping and maybe buy more until they sit down at a cafe for a coffee, tea or a glass of wine. Car drivers drive too fast to window shop and spend less. Pedestrianized streets invite you to window shop, have a good time and thereby spend more.

[@Descriptor413]

Our local pedestrian street recently got one way car traffic re-introduced due to our ignorant DOT, and store owners on the street noticed a marked decrease in customers as a result. And that's even with the option to close the street to cars for events., which happen regularly. The car caused it to lose its magic as a destination in itself.

[@BalaenicepsRex3]

​@@faustinpippin9208There isn't a single car in Venice and businesses aren't doing any worse because of that.

[@TheJamieRamone]

Hey guys, I was born, grew up in, and lived a long time in Córdoba, Argentina. This city was the first in the country, and perhaps all of America (not too sure) to implement permanently pedestrian streets in the historic part of the downtown area, a collection of like 9 city blocks and some extensions, way back in 1969 (inaugurated in 1970). Of course all streets were pedestrian before cars, though there were carriages, wagons carrying merchandise, etc. But these were the first *_SINCE THE AUTOMOTIVE TAKEOVER OF THE STREETS_* that were cordoned off and restricted to only pedestrian use, with limited entry to small service vehicles. Back then the same objections you hear now popped up: "it's gonna be ruinous for business if there's no car traffic to/from here!", "real estate value will plummet!!!", yadda-yadda-yadda. Well, more than 50 years later, not only did that not happen, it turned out to be the most valuable real-estate in the area, if not the whole city, thanks to pedestrianization, as well as businesses thriving there for the same reason. Turns out, people walking past stores at way-slower-than-car speeds actually gravitate towards them as they actually notice things they want/need. Who wudda thunk? Anyway, this trend caught on and many other cities in the province, and the country, (partly) pedestrianized their downtowns. Nowadays "La Peatonal" (literally The Pedestrian, as we lovingly call it) is a landmark of our beautiful city. Just lookup Peatonal Cordoba Argentina to get walkthrus. Or just go on Google Maps, it's there too. 😊

[@davidroldan6007]

Here in Guadalajara, México, they turned Alcalde Avenue (an important, busy one) into a pedestrian promenade. I think it's the largest pedestrian street in the world. It has been a wild success.

[@BalaenicepsRex3]

Sounds great! Now that's a destination in my list :) I've seen many streets here around Mexico City that could be great candidates to be pedestrianized

[@curtismah1261]

I would love to visit this! I have seen the street in CDMX!

[@kevinandrew_]

It's crazy to me that my home town of Winnipeg hasn't tried even just a single pedestrian street, even just as a summer trial. There are so many narrow streets in the exchange district that might work (if you're not from here this area is full of small local businesses and restaurants as is). This wouldn't even disrupt traffic all that much if closed as the vast majority of thru traffic uses the larger surrounding roads instead.

[@coryburgher]

After living in Montreal for many years, I recently moved to Halifax. Here, we have Argyle Street as our only pedestrianized street (there was a half-hearted attempt to pedestrianize Spring Garden Road last year, but it failed shortly after). I miss the walkability of Montreal and the emphasis placed on pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly infrastructure. I would love to see permanently pedestrianized streets become common in Canadian cities!

[@ZachFisher2753]

If you ever want to check out how a pedestrian-only street thrives in a smaller city, I recommend a quick trip over the border to Church Street in Burlington, VT! It's been ped-only for decades and continues to be one of the main draws for the city.

[@mdhazeldine]

Pedestrian streets work really well in Winter in Europe. I live in London and in the winter, especially in the run up to Christmas the pedestrian streets get full of Christmas decorations, hot food stands, fun fairs, ice skating rinks and people doing their Christmas shopping. I suppose we don't get the harsh winters of Montreal, but still, it shows you don't have to fill them with cars again.

[@SnakPak]

The problem with America is we don't have even a single Luigi on our pedestrianized streets. I mean, can you even call it a pedestrianized street if it donsnt have a Luigi?

[@ThreeRunHomer]

The pedestrianized street in my town has been visited by Disney princesses, Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and a variety of other cosplayers showing off.

[@StreetfilmsCommunity]

This is hysterical since while in Montreal I kept saying to myself "It would be really cool if I had enough time to do a "Top Things Montreal does on its open streets that YOU SHOULD DO!" Lol, now I get to experience it without doing any work. EVEN BETTER!!!

[@peachfinger]

The fact that Kensington Market in Toronto is not pedestrianised is mind boggling. The councillor for the ward said that some local homeowners objected to the one day per week closures in the summer. But just north of it in the Annex there are plenty of streets that are not through streets. There is no need for two way traffic and two parking lanes when there is only 2m of sidewalk packed with people who spill over onto the street anyways.

[@TroySaltiel]

Salt Lake City, Utah is now studying pedestrianizing their main street downtown. It has fare free light rail running down the center. It ends up having a bit less space because of that, curious if they'll work in bike accessibility. It would be a huge blow without it given the horrible state highway the next street over.

[@76JPH]

Argyle Street in Halifax is permanently pedestrianized. It is much shorter than the ones you’re discussing, and Halifax certainly doesn’t get the snow that Montreal does, but it succeeds throughout the year. It is clearly marked by different surfacing and has very clear signs. The city attempted to do the same with Spring Garden Road, but other than a couple of signs nothing g was done so it failed within days. Everyone loves Argyle, yet everyone was up in arms over SGR. So much depends on implementation.

[@RobertPrestley]

Pedestrian streets can succeed even outside of cities! I used to live in Arvada, Colorado, a streetcar suburb outside Denver, which during the pandemic shut down a several-block section of roads through Olde Town. It was such a huge success that they made it permanent, and even though I don't live there anymore, I find myself coming back several times a year because it's just such a pleasant place to be.

[@hugojulia7145]

I was so happy seeing signs to make wellington st pedestrian all year round. Hope it works for next year!

[@kev2034]

On the tram point, you don't have to run trams both ways down the street. In my city we have a pretty popular high street that just temporarily splits into 1 way tram routes with one going down the high street with the other serving the local neighbourhood and joining back up before getting back into the city centre. It's a great way to add a tram to tight streets.

[@weppwebb2885]

Ohh that's a nice idea. Karlsruhe used to have most tramlines trough the pedestrian zone. which made it easy to get there, but as this is in the middle of most tram routes everyone going trough is slowed down and restaurants have less space available. Here the solution was to go underground only for the pedestrian zone (and one mayor junction). I am not sure if it will be worth it but I will give it a try when it's finished.

[@Hyperventilacion]

I actually signed for the petition to turn la Well into permanently pedestrian, I do hope it goes trough, last week we had the best weather of the year and a couple of friends who work in the service industry there were lamenting that it got gutted so fast, businesses lost so much money last week because it is closed for pedestrians again! If it passes, it will be a double challenge, not only will it have to deal with the problems that you mentioned, but also with the press and the whole NYMBY backlash. Thankfully urban advocate are more and more common an vocal, so NYMBYs are not the only over-represented voices to be heard. For this case I thin a major defy will be making the metro accessible for those who take the bus, as the bus 58 connects people from LaSalle and Lachine, maybe leaving the street open only to the bus and déneigeuses as long as they go slowly.

[@cieldunord4208]

Yeah, it's a bummer. Cars are back on Mont-Royal avenue and the magic is gone.

[@alecity4877]

In Caracas, Venezuela, we have the Sabana Grande Boulevard which is a broad pedestrian street that's 1.2km long, it is one of the most economically active places in the city and where many businesses have endured much better the economic crisis in the country. Part of that last point is that when gasoline became scarce and suddenly much more expensive, this area continued to have traffic similar to before while other more car centered comercial areas struggled, including malls. Pedestrian areas simply have stronger and more flexible economies at a local level.

[@trashrabbit69]

I always remember when State Street here in Madison was closed to vehicle traffic except buses and emergency vehicles and the atmosphere improved DRAMATICALLY. It feels so nice to go there and not have to worry about someone flying down the street, no noisy horns or blaring music, a very calm and casual atmosphere.

[@jannetteberends8730]

What I love about Canada and the USA making their streets car free again, that the streets become so cheerful. That never happened in the Netherlands. I think it’s time to start a new movement here, in the Netherlands, with how to make your street itself more attractive.

[@mariannerichard1321]

We have a few year round pedestrian streets in Québec City, in the lower part of the old city. If you want to come see how it works in winter, I recommend in December, as there are a lot of tourists around. ^__^

[@HendrikdeSmidt]

The fact that Broadway in Nashville TN still hasn't been pedestrianized is honestly insane. They already temporarily shut out car traffic for events on an almost monthly basis, theres no reason not to make it permanent other than a regressive local political climate.

[@TheMondomaverick]

There was a proposal to pedestrianize Wyndham Street North in Guelph but it doesn't look like that's happening anymore. It would've made the downtown so much more pleasant to be in. Right now it's basically a 6-lane highway.

[@samlerman-hahn2674]

In Berlin, on the initial Friedrichstraße pedestrianisation between Unter den Linden and Leipziger Straße, they actually had bike lanes in the middle of the street in an attempt to mitigate bike-pedestrian conflicts. However, this was not as effective as they'd hoped due to the width of the street, so it was decided that as part of a permanent pedestrianisation, parallel Charlottenstraße would also be closed to car traffic and turned into a designated bike street to remove this conflict entirely. Unfortunately, we never got to see this come to fruition as a court declared the Friedrichstraße pedestrianisation in and of itself illegal (an unnecessary change in government didn't help either; the new transport minister says she won't allow bike infrastructure that results in any removal of parking spaces)

[@nlpnt]

Just south of the border, Church Street in Burlington, VT has been pedestrianized permanently since 1981 and we have pretty much the same weather as Montreal.

[@RushofBlood52]

The accessibility is such a good call. The street my mind goes to is Newark Ave in Jersey City, and a big reason for that is that the city did make it year-round and that means, among other things, they could make it continuous from the sidewalk to where the "street" once was. I wish they would extend it even further. It still gets lots of use in the winter. If nothing else, it makes the walk to the train that less crowded on the sidewalks.

[@mowattokonitz9709]

Also Montreal, and on a much smaller scale than most of these, but I'm part of a student initiative at Concordia to pedestrianize Mackay Street on the block between Sherbrooke and De Maisonneuve. It's the first block of a one-lane street with busy university buildings on both sides and we'd love to have our own equivalent to McGill's McTavish and the section of Saint-Denis near UQAM!

[@infj4w511]

4:42 To me, that street looks wide enough for trams. That sidewalk on the right could get tram track, the benches left to it could stay, and the squares left from that could be turned into a sidewalk.

[@ThreeRunHomer]

Market Square in Knoxville (TN) is a successful pedestrianized street. It’s just one block long, but has 18 restaurants and bars, plus a few shops and a boutique hotel. As you said, outdoor dining is the secret to success. Programming is also important: the square hosts free concerts, movies, farmers markets and special events. Music buskers are always there. On weekend evenings a guy brings dozens of hula hoops out for people to play with. In winter there is an outdoor skating rink. A small urban park functionally extends the square another block to the south.

[@StreetTuner1]

Stephen Avenue in Calgary, AB is a great Canadian example of a year-round pedestrian street. It is available to cars only at night, one lane in one direction, but it is a great place to visit any time of year.

[@APJTA]

Unless I'm mistaken, de la Gauchetière in Chinatown is permanently pedestrianized, and has been for a while. It's a pretty short street, but it gets decent traffic in the winter and it's the street you'll funnel onto if you're going to cut through Chinatown.

[@sambilardi]

This really reminds me of the Pearl Street pedestrian mall in Boulder, Colorado. I always enjoyed walking down it on weekends.

[@MrBjornov]

Love the way cities are developing towards beeing walkable.

[@deebte__]

downtown la needs lots of pedestrianized streets, same with all of our other million centers, one in particular is 6th st in san pedro, it's got a lot of pedestrians and once the former courthouse finishes its new apartment complex it'll be 100% developed east of pacific, mostly historic stuff but new stuff too, it's the perfect spot to try it

[@Richard24Blair]

Last year there was an "attempt" in Halifax to convert Spring Garden to a temporary pedestrian street - it didn't go well and was cancelled after just a couple weeks. A lack of enforcement on stopping cars from entering the street (while wanting to keep it open to busses, so couldn't just leave bollards out during the day) and a seeming lack of commitment from the city to try and really see the pilot through meant that it never got a real chance to go car free. It's especially annoying because only a couple blocks over is Argyle Street - which *has* been successfully redesigned into being a pedestrian-first street (at least when the bars are most active). In my parent's hometown of Moncton, there's a good chunk of Main Street where pedestrianizing it wouldn't just be good for downtown life, but actually improve traffic too. So much of the traffic is just passing through downtown and not actually going *to* downtown. There's a perfectly good downtown bypass road that can accommodate much higher traffic flows, but it gets a lot less use because people naturally want to stick to driving straight rather than taking the turn to go around. So a pedestrianized Main Street would go in hand with redesigning the intersection with the bypass road to direct through-traffic around with a lot less congestion.

[@adambeck8180]

Although I bet year round would be better, I do really like the festive vibe that the temporary furnishings give off. It looks way more fun than the boring "hardscaping" and advertisement kiosks seen on many permanently ped streets. If you do go year round in Montreal, I hope y'all keep it fun and hand-made and that it doesn't begin to seem like nothing special.

[@thomasnewton8223]

I really wish Chicago would implement more of these. They have an insanely popular “Sundays on state” festival during the summer months. Plus with Chicagos grid design and alleyways, many of the arguments against ped streets fall flat.

[@kittykat9996]

Monkland Avenue in NDG would be an amazing candidate for pedestrianization. Although the through-fare is somewhat essential to link Westminster, Cavendish and Decarie, there are plenty of other adjacent avenues like Sherbrooke and Terrebonne that could be used. It has decent metro access via Villa-Maria and is almost constantly vibrant with restaurant life, especially after Grand Boulevard. It would be an absolute dream to not have to deal with noisy and obnoxious cars while I traverse one of my favourite streets.

[@samlerman-hahn2674]

We should also turn the Autoroute Décarie into an electric railway and if there's any space left over, use it for a bike path

[@BeneathWalls]

We’re desperately hoping that Newbury St in Boston becomes fully pedestrianized!

[@ericpl114]

We visited Mount Royal Ave this past weekend and Wellington the weekend before. They are vastly different with cars being allowed back, it was such a different experience and much less enjoyable. With such nice weather into late September and into October, they should definitely extend these pedestrian streets later in the year. Thank you for your great videos and covering Montreal in such a fantastic way!

[@alistair9337]

I see the success Montreal is having, and see people on both sides flip out about going car free in Kensington market in Toronto, and I think we will never have any like this here.

[@Frostbiker]

Even High Park is still a car sewer even though there is a subway station right next to it.

[@user-iw4jl6bc8h]

Toronto has a USA car culture . Montreal is more europeen and civilized . Pedestrians wait for the green light to cross the street , bikes, stollers, families, dogs are respectant each oder.

[@Legonatic]

I find it quite silly how some people interpret car-free to mean no delivery trucks or emergency vehicles too. Some people are so used to thinking one way, that seeing the most common sense compromise is impossible.

[@Codangerz]

We have been fighting to have 5th ave in San Diego to be pedestrianized and we got it but is only on the weekends, very small step but I very welcomed change, the street runs through the gas lamp district in SD full of bars and night life and the streets just become so much lively on the weekends

[@sharpless]

Most (all?) of the permanent pedestrian streets in my city is heated during winter, so no great need to remove snow with machines. Some of the streets always allow motor vehicles, but only at walking speeds. Of course, no one drives that slowly, unless there are pedestrians in the way, but they mostly drive slowly enough to not be annoying. We also have a summer pedestrian street, but only from end of June to end of August. There have been rumours about it being made permanent, but I do not know when that will happen. Trams/street cars/light rail would be nice on the some roads were we have buses today, but there is the problem of cost.

[@juliaisafilmbuff123]

Mont-Royal needs to be pedestrian-only all year round. I'd also like to see Ste. Catherine downtown become pedestrian-only since Centre-Ville is an overcrowded zoo and cars only make it 100x worse.

[@northamericanvanlines]

downtown and old montreal should be pedestrianized entirely. absolute zoos filled with lost tourists and suburbanites.

[@ephraimboateng5239]

Very curious about how Wellington street would manage snow removal in the winters. There's also the fact that like you guys said, greenery wouldn't work as decoration during the winters, although especially around Christmas, small spruce trees and other coniferous plants could work and really spruce up (eh) the place. They do this in the Place-des-Art on St-Catherine st. and its beautiful. But i think the main problem with year round pedestrian streets is who would actually go there in from January to April. There's no patio, maybe some outdoor seating and art displays, but they would have to be removed every time it snowed enough to force snow removal, which would be at least a couple times a month. However, pedestrian streets are really cool and i would love for the city to find a way to make Wellington work, so they can then do the same to Mont-Royal ave. and St-Catherine st.

[@andymod]

Toronto needs pedestrian-only streets! Yonge Street between Dundas and College (maybe even from Queen St). King Street from University Av to Church St (but really, it needs to be pedestrianised from Spadina to Jarvis). Front and Wellington Streets from Yonge to Jarvis. There will be so much better without cars!

[@cieldunord4208]

Something I'm looking forward to is the pedestrianization of old Montreal next year. On some summer weekends this place is so packed with cars it becomes as pleasant as the Carrefour Laval parking lot.

[@klearwaterstudios]

Main Street in the Downtown Cincinnati and OTR neighborhoods NEEDS to be pedestrianized!

[@henrydelgadillo6228]

Fifth Avenue in the San Diego Gaslamp Quarter District is closed to vehicles (and open only to pedestrians) from approximately 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. Monday through Sunday, from Broadway to K Street.

[@ronvandereerden4714]

Vancouver is so far behind it is embarrassing. There isn't a single proper car free street in the entire city. There are a few closures on perpendicular streets for a 100m at most and a transit mall. Water and Robson Streets are no-brainers for permanent pedestrianizing. Granville (currently a transit mall), Hornby and Pender streets could also work well. Commercial Drive is another and it has a parallel arterial for transit just two blocks away. Most of Granville Island could be car free. There was a pilot closure of two short blocks in Kitsilano this summer and our current pro-car council nixed it before it had a chance to evolve. Congratulations on Montreal's successes. In Vancouver it is maddening.

[@mrodgers3910]

Good points. Granville Island in particular makes my head explode.

[@geoff5623]

The Yew Street pilot was just so half-thought in so many ways. I really hope they actually follow through on a more comprehensive plan for next summer, because there were so many small things could have made it much better. The city has done many smaller plazas now (like 4th and Maple not far away) that they could have just replicated.

[@ronvandereerden4714]

They needed to fix it, not to rip it out. Same with the Stanley Park bike lane. ABC is slash and burn, no concept off sublety, iteration and evolution.

[@barryrobbins7694]

It is an often complicated process to undo bad urban planning, but worth the effort as seen in this video. Hopefully, many of these temporary fixes can be made permanent to more fully realize the vision.

[@newsjunkie7135]

Yeah, it's such a shame that Avenue du Mont-Royal is closed again now (from a pedestrian perspective). 😔

[@Gui_3432]

Great video! It has not been mentioned, but Castelneau is going to become a permanently shared street called Place de Castelneau and it will still be pedestrians and bikes only during summer!! They will re-do all the street starting from january 2024 🎉🎉

[@growingawareness]

Columbus Georgia has a street like this, Broadway. But it should be a car free street. There's an old train track that could be revitalized and turned into a trolley. It's not on Broadway, but it heads perpendicular to Broadway. Broadway is 1 block from the river path, which is mostly pedestrian. I wish folks around here could see the potential.

[@bitte12pouce]

Saint-Viateur would be awesome as a pedestrian street.

[@MisyeDiVre]

I miss Mont-Royal Avenue ! :, ) Good times.

[@otsoko66]

It might have been instructive to talk about Prince Arthur street in Montreal - a permanent pedestrianized street that was a huge success (in the 80s and 90s) ... until it wasn't. It's complicated, but a big part of the problem was that Prince Arthur became more and more deserted in the 6 colder months, until it became an urban wasteland. I lived nearby in the 90s, and it was great -- until it wasn't. The experience with Prince Arthur made people in Montreal much more wary of permanent pedestrianization.

[@alexseguin5245]

Not sure how you would describe it as "not popular", everytime I go on that street, it's full of people. One of the nicest streets in the city. It's not like the street could function as an artery anyway, there's barely the width for a one way street.

[@SethDaMeth]

In my home city of Baltimore, there's this beautiful waterfront street called Thames Street, it's in this historic neighborhood called Fells Point and is covered with Cobblestone, if they pedestrianized that, it would be beautiful, and also get rid of the parking lot

[@ikelom]

Ayyyy a Nouvelles D'Ici cameo on KZbin!!

[@oceanwonders]

Such lovely visuals. Missing summer already.

[@SeanNicholsEh]

I definitely took some note of the part at 4:30 where you mentioned liking "transit malls" - pedestrian streets that also allow transit. I understand where you're coming from; especially knowing how in a number of European cities they have managed to do this fairly well where they allow low-floor trams that basically go really slowly down the street and mingle with pedestrians who have leave to be anywhere on the street. As a Calgarian, however, I'd like to sound a note of caution, as my city provides an example of how it can be done really poorly. We have high-floor trams (LRT) here running down what is ostensibly a "transit mall," but they also run at much higher speeds, and basically turn the road into a regular street, just one that cars aren't allowed on. Pedestrians are still relegated to narrow sidewalks along the edge, with trains zooming by every few minutes down the centre. It's really not a particularly appealing place to be a pedestrian, and it shows, with not very many retail businesses along the street (no more so than any other random downtown street), and definitely no outdoor patios or anything of the like. There's a true pedestrian mall (at least during the daytime) a block over, with no transit allowed, and that's where all the people are, where the street-oriented shopping and restaurants are, and so forth. The transit mall really serves very little purpose beyond getting cars out of the way to make it easier for the LRT to make progress. Which is all fine and well but it doesn't achieve any of the objectives of a pedestrianised street. I've also experienced this phenomenon in a number of cities in the USA as well. There is a fairly long list of cities that tried the transit mall approach with high expectations, especially back in the 70s and 80s, only to do a poor job of it and have the thing fall on its face. Without doing the research that I don't have time for right at the minute I can't come up with too many specific examples, but I'm generally aware there are quite a number of American cases where they ended up rolling back the transit mall in the last 20-ish years, reverting the street to its original form where all private motorised traffic is allowed. So yeah; it 𝘤𝘢𝘯 work (as in some places in Europe; Vancouver's Granville Mall also seems to be not too awful)... but given the half-assed way we often approach urbanist design in North American cities, I'd be wary of pushing transit malls too hard.

[@YoungThos]

While watching this bit my thoughts immediately went to the Graham Avenue transit mall in downtown Winnipeg which opened in the 90s and created a street full of buses and not much else. Although being in downtown Winnipeg it had the odds stacked against it from the beginning 😅

[@definitelynotacrab7651]

Would definitely want to see those opend into October, definitely a wierd choice to close so early

[@Jacksparrow4986]

You included a foto of Würzburg ❤ I used to live there and the main issue I see with the pedestrian zone could be overcrowding. It really should be expanded. As winter attractions I'd suggest iglus and ⛄️ s. Maybe contests/workshops for building them with support from utilities for extra snow?

[@philippemiller4740]

Awake video as always. Continue your good work. I enjoy watching your videos

[@tomasbeltran04050]

Really inspiring video

[@rebecca1431]

I love your channel.

[@River_Rune]

Thank you 💚🖤

[@jorgea5426]

I think that bike policy on pedestrian streets is a very interesting topic. Some pedestrian streets are very busy, and it is crazy allowing bikes on them (or bikes going faster than a pedestrian. In other there is no problem, and there is a lot of cases in between. I would be interesting to see if some city figures out how to signalize properly the differente types of pedestrian streets.

[@blake-gl4wn]

The only reason for bikes going too fast around pedestrians is that there’s no good alternative route. It a pain in asss to ride amongst pedestrians.

[@coverversionoftheday9941]

I appreciate your time devoted to mobility aspects.

[@Imbatmn57]

When my city finishes building their pedestrian,car/bike road im going to walk down it with a golf ball collector to pick up the round nuts that are going to fall from the trees because i know people like my mom could slip and fall. Sure its only a small stretch of street but i think its better to contribute to the solution than be part of the problem. Maybe put together a volunteer group that can offer to remove the snow from part of the street, if only to show the city that you're willing to help if they keep the roads.

[@JW-zl2sc]

Cary street in Richmond Virginia might be a place to look at. There are currently proposals to make it car free, and the pushback has been exactly what you would think.

[@ThreeRunHomer]

You’d think Richmond would be eager to replicate the success of the pedestrianized street in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia.

[@meganmccrossan5670]

I'm perpetually frustrated that Kensington Market in Toronto isn't pedestrianized. The city put forward an extremely modest proposal of pedestrian-only zone for 3 half blocks, plus "pedestrian priority" zone covering half of Augusta (the main north-south route) and half of Baldwin (the main east-west route). 90% of survey respondents were in favour of pedestrian-only zone, dropping to 60% support for those who live or work in the market. 90% of respondents arrive at the market by either foot, bike or transit. Top concerns that axed it were local residents concerned with losing parking, and concern it would become too popular. We have few safe streets in this area where kids can walk or play without fear of cars, or where one can eat outside without sucking car exhaust. I hate hate hate it that car-brain ruins it for everyone else. They get every other street in the city -- why can we get one small spot for people?

[@erins9271]

We have half-hearted attempts at pedestrian streets where I am. But eating outside on a temporary patio beside speeding traffic spewing exhaust isn't pleasant in any way. Instead, we get a few hours a few times a year where certain streets are closed to vehicular traffic; mostly for events(i.e., Open Streets, Art Crawls, food truck events)

[@test40323]

The closing timing may be coincidental with school semesters. I do love pedestrian streets and especially the Montreal art scene. Thought provoking as always, thanks!

[@evankuhn9625]

Wellington st in Ottawa in front of Parliament! It was closed to cars following the Jan/feb 2022 occupation and then remained closed until mid 2023 - when the new mayor got elected and decided to open it back up to cars. It was way nicer and would be way nicer (and safer) if it remained car free, considering the amount of foot and bike traffic, especially from tourists. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I think I heard talk of the NCC considering buying that stretch of Wellington and turning it car-free? Maybe it was just a rumour, but one can only dream...

[@jimspies2775]

Great video. STL here. This would be so easy on Manchester in the Grove, Delmar in the Loop, Washington downtown, and on South Grand (Arsenal to Utah). The last one would probably be remaining open to transit, as Grand is the top bus route in STL.

[@gjackyroxas2720]

Love Montreal ❤️😍💖

[@javierlee4002]

Green Lanes in North London is in dier need of change like this. Atleast sections of it!

[@Anna_Rae]

I’d love for the Mainstreet in my small town in Colorado to be pedestrianized. There’s good traffic calming measures, lots of small businesses, but too many cars. 2 lanes of traffic, and 2 lanes of on street parking (despite having multiple parking lots around Mainstreet. And the biggest downer is that Mainstreet quickly ends and connects to a 7 lane stroad. People treat our Mainstreet as a place to go through, rather than a destination. They pedestrianize it on sundays in the summer for a farmer’s market, but that’s it. I’d love for it to be fully pedestrianized, but also there’s just too much suburban sprawl to make it a convenient walkable trip to Mainstreet. Might be bikable from where I live, but it’s still not ideal. Housing nearby the Mainstreet like apartments and town homes are very car oriented, and are often next to very loud traffic corridors. The town I live in is quite conflicted in what it wants unfortunately, and change is slow.

[@hugoboyce9648]

It is *sooo* annoying that they un-pedestrianize it in the winter. I personally avoid going on Mt-Royal when it's open to cars. There a a ton of pedestrian streets and plazas in places where it snows, it's not that hard!

[@GojiMet86]

Although Ciudad Cayala is the newer and more popular attraction, 6th Avenue (Paseo de la Sexta) in Guatemala City was an actual road that was closed off to traffic and turned into a pedestrian attraction. With all its activity and bustle, people feel more comfortable walking outside. Crime and safety is a big concern, but people tend to be more relaxed on this former road than in other streets.

[@vicherd]

In my city, there are challenges with transforming a street into a pedestrian only one. (1) Businesses, mixed with restaurants, offices and services, as well as residential homes and apartments along a street - no system exists to allow pedestrians while still providing car access to the people who have driveways on the street side. These are the first to oppose any road closures. (2) Even for streets that are only for commercial business, a full carless street is difficult as many of our most popular streets are also the main thoroughfares of our city. Closing these roads to cars will create major gridlocks in surrounding areas. (3) There's a lack of will from the local government to implement road closures even on a test basis. We also don't have a Strong Towns type of organization that can help push this agenda.

[@adamzguy]

@ohtheurbanity! Do you think there’s a chance we can get Duluth ave in Montreal to become a linear park year round, as the “bridge” between Mont Royal and Lafontaine parks?

[@kailahmann1823]

I'm actually shocked, Montreal turns it's pedestrian-streets into car-streets for the winter, because here in Germany (and afaik also in Scandinavian countries) the time before Christmas is by far the busiest time of the year for these areas. On the other end, when they are already off-limits to cars for half a year, than they are obviously not needed for car- or transit-routes, so they could even stay mostly empty for a few month without harm.

[@oldbrokenhands]

Deep Ellum in Dallas, is slowly trending that direction; but we're a car-centric hellhole with a history of oil money so change is painful here.

[@jonathanf.9395]

Barcelona Superblocks!

[@MrCyclist]

As a Canadian Snowbird in Melbourne FL, I once suggested to local council that they make the historic downtown area into a car free mall. A one kilometre road and I was ignored, no surprise. The street is a wall to wall parking lot and such an ugly environment and a dead zone visually.

[@obrienliam]

Paging Mark Sutcliffe, mayor of Ottawa!

[@alexseguin5245]

I'm pretty sure the Plante admin must be thinking about doing permanent pedestrianization for Mont-Royal Avenue, but they might be waiting for plans and for some other projects to finish so that they can allocate some money to that. The street is wayyy too popular to ever allow cars on it, regardless of the season.

[@NyomiHendon]

Hell yeah Luigi

[@joshuahillerup4290]

You should do a video explaining why Sparks street in Ottawa fails as a pedestrian street

[@groundzero_-lm4md]

Probably because all the shops close at 17:00 (5pm)

[@joshuahillerup4290]

@@groundzero_-lm4md that's a big one. Although why? I get Ottawa goes to bed early, but other streets do still have many shops open after then

[@cieldunord4208]

It's lined with government office buildings and banks. Not the liveliest area in town.

[@northamericanvanlines]

and the footprint of these institutional buildings are huge. montreal’s pedestrian streets are packed with narrow buildings so there is something new every few steps.

[@MagnumEagle]

3:01 Nice of Montreal to convert this road to a pedestrian street, eh Luigi?

[@donmc1950]

In Ottawa the Sparks Street mall was one of Canada's 1st pedestrianised streets. It was active during the day with government workers. With more work at home it is mainly used by tourists in summer. Cambridge Street near China Town is Ottawa's only woonerf street where car traffic is greatly restricted. Snow clearance on woonerf streets is a challenge. Unfortunately our current mayor is pro car so we are unlikely to see more pedestrian streets for the next 4 years

[@sunandsage]

This could be done with Virginia St in Reno, NV and Center St in Provo, UT.

[@kami_in_the_skye]

Have very quickly grown to absolutely adore this channel. I think y'all have the best, most accessible & immediately helpful approach in the urbanization space for any non-professional who desires to make a positive impact on their local community in this way.

[@NAUM1]

It would be awesome to see a city have pedestrianized streets with limits on bicycles and streets dedicated to bicycle traffic. I'm a fan of all the policies when it comes to deliveries. It would obviously still have streets for cars, but I really want to see some of that even go down to one lane one way streets like alleys for cars just to minimize the space they take. One thought was even having the alley drive thru and the pedestrianized street facing restaurant front.

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

For streets dedicated to bike traffic, look up a "fietsstraat". Those are streets designed primarily as bicycle routes, with through traffic blocked using filtered permeability, but motor vehicles can still drive along them to access properties

[@tintin_999]

They just need that electrically heated asphalt and a big tent along the whole street for winter (the tent might have to be electric to deal with the snow?).