Open Streets

Let's get creative with the 70 percent of public space dedicated to storing and moving cars. There are a ton of extraordinary things the public can do with that valuable real estate.

The burgeoning open streets movement brought on by the pandemic has created more space for people, provided lessons in how to quickly test ideas successfully (like in Minneapolis and Oakland) and unsuccessfully (like in New York City), and shown that the responses by cities to rapidly changing needs can be equally rapid. (Plenty of other cities, including our home base of Washington, DC, have tried almost nothing, instead leaving people at risk on crowded sidewalks while wide streets sit empty and wasted as trips have evaporated.)

There are some city leaders who fear that if they make streets too pedestrian-friendly, it will encourage walkers to crowd the streets, spreading the virus more. It won't. Here's why.

We need more space — which means we need a new blueprint for how to do Open Streets events during this challenging global moment and beyond.

...with some very important exceptions.

In the absence of federal leadership on how to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe during COVID19, cities are stepping up and sharing resources themselves.

During the global pandemic, cities around the world are recognizing it makes sense to take road space that is usually used for moving and storing cars and instead give it to people. They’re reallocating the right-of-way from travel lanes and parking to create emergency bikeways for essential workers, and open space where residents can safely […]

Now more than ever, it's time to give walkers and bikers more space on our roads.

Cities need to treat curb space like restaurants treat its prime tables.