Pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or human-powered transport such as bicycles, with non-emergency motor traffic not allowed. Converting a street or an area to pedestrian-only use is called pedestrianisation.
Pedestrianisation usually aims to provide better accessibility and mobility for pedestrians, to enhance the amount of shopping and other business activities in the area or to improve the attractiveness of the local environment in terms of aesthetics, air pollution, noise and crashes involving motor vehicles with pedestrians. In some cases, motor traffic in surrounding areas increases, as it is displaced rather than replaced. Nonetheless, pedestrianisation schemes are often associated with significant falls in local air and noise pollution and in accidents, and frequently with increased retail turnover and increased property values locally.
A car-free development generally implies a large-scale pedestrianised area that relies on modes of transport other than the car, while pedestrian zones may vary in size from a single square to entire districts, but with highly variable degrees of dependence on cars for their broader transport links.
Pedestrian zones have a great variety of approaches to human-powered vehicles such as bicycles, inline skates, skateboards and kick scooters. Some have a total ban on anything with wheels, others ban certain categories, others segregate the human-powered wheels from foot traffic, and others still have no rules at all. Many Middle Eastern kasbahs have no motorized traffic, but use donkey- or hand-carts to carry goods.
History
Origins in arcades
The idea of separating pedestrians from wheeled traffic is an old one, dating back at least to the Renaissance. However, the earliest modern implementation of the idea in cities seems to date from about 1800, when the first covered shopping arcade was opened in Paris. Separated shopping arcades were constructed throughout Europe in the 19th century, precursors of modern shopping malls. A number of architects and city planners, including Joseph Paxton, Ebenezer Howard, and Clarence Stein, in the 19th and early 20th centuries proposed plans to separate pedestrians from traffic in various new developments.1920s–1970s
The first "pedestrianisation" of an existing street seems to have taken place "around 1929" in Essen, Germany. This was in Limbecker Straße, a very narrow shopping street that could not accommodate both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Two other German cities followed this model in the early 1930s, but the idea was not seen outside Germany. Following the devastation of the Second World War a number of European cities implemented plans to pedestrianise city streets, although usually on a largely ad hoc basis, through the early 1950s, with little landscaping or planning. By 1955 twenty-one German cities had closed at least one street to automobile traffic, although only four were "true" pedestrian streets, designed for the purpose. At this time pedestrianisation was not seen as a traffic restraint policy, but rather as a complement to customers who would arrive by car in a city centre.Pedestrianisation was also common in the United States during the 1950s and 60s as downtown businesses attempted to compete with new suburban shopping malls. However, most of these initiatives were not successful in the long term, and about 90% have been changed back to motorised areas.
1980s–2010s
In the United States, several pedestrian zones in major tourist areas were successful, such as the renovation of the mall in Santa Monica on Los Angeles' Westside and its relaunch as the Third Street Promenade; the creation of the covered, pedestrian Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas; the revival of East 4th Street in Downtown Cleveland; and the new pedestrian zone created in the mid-2010s in New York City including along Broadway and around Times Square.COVID-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, some cities pedestrianised more streets to encourage social distancing, and in many cases to provide more space for restaurants to serve food on extended patios. In the United States, New York City closed up to of streets to cars across the city. In Madrid, Spain, the city pedestrianized of streets and of spaces in total. The COVID-19 pandemic also prompted proposals for radical change in the organisation of the city, in particular in Barcelona, such as the pedestrianisation of the whole city and an inversion of the concept of "sidewalk"; these were two elements of the Manifesto for the Reorganisation of the city, written by architecture and urban theorist Massimo Paolini and signed by 160 academics and 300 architects.Definitions and types
A pedestrian zone is often limited in scope: for example, a single square or a few streets reserved for pedestrians, within a city where residents still largely get around in cars. A car-free town, city or region may be much larger.Car free towns, cities and regions
A car-free zone is different from a typical pedestrian zone, in that it implies a development largely predicated on modes of transport other than the car.Examples
A number of towns and cities in Europe have never allowed motor vehicles. Archetypal examples are:- Venice, which occupies many islands in a lagoon, divided by and accessed from canals. Motor traffic stops at the car park at the head of the viaduct from the mainland, and water transport and walking take over from there. However, motor vehicles are allowed on the nearby Lido.
- Zermatt in the Swiss Alps. Most visitors reach Zermatt by a cog railway, and there are pedestrian-only streets, but there are also roads with motor vehicles.
- Cinque Terre in Italy
- Ghent in Belgium: the pedestrian zone was extended in 2017 from 35 to more than 50 hectares, one of the largest car-free areas in Europe.
- Pontevedra in Spain, an international model of pedestrianization, almost 50% of the city is pedestrianised.;
- The Old Town of Rhodes, where many, if not most, of the streets are too steep and/or narrow for car traffic.
- Mount Athos, an autonomous monastic state under the sovereignty of Greece, does not permit automobiles on its territory. Trucks and work-related vehicles only are in use there.
- The medieval city of Mdina in Malta does not allow automobiles past the city walls. It is known as the "Silent City" because of the absence of motor traffic in the city.
- Sark, an island in the English Channel, is a car-free zone where only bicycles, carriages and tractors are used as transportation.
- Gulangyu, an island off the coast of Xiamen in southeastern China. The only vehicles permitted are small electric buggies and electric government service vehicles.
Car-free development
The term car-free development implies a physical change: either built-up or changes to an existing built area.In a 2010 publication co-authored by Steve Melia, car-free developments are defined as residential or mixed-use areas that typically provide an immediate environment devoid of vehicular traffic, offer little to no parking separated from the residence, and are designed to let residents live without car ownership. This definition, which they distinguish from the more common "low car development", is based mainly on experience in North West Europe, where the movement for car-free development began. Within this definition, three types are identified: the Vauban model, the limited access model, and pedestrianised centres with residential populations.
File:Knez Mihailova at night.jpg|thumb|Knez Mihailova pedestrian zone at night with New Year decoration in Belgrade, Serbia
Limited access type
The more common form of carfree development involves some sort of physical barrier, which prevents motor vehicles from penetrating into a car-free interior. Melia et al. describe this as the "limited access" type. In some cases, such as Stellwerk 60 in Cologne, there is a removable barrier, controlled by a residents' organisation. In Amsterdam, Waterwijk is a neighborhood where cars may only access parking areas from the streets that form the edges of the neighborhood; all of the inner areas of the neighborhood are car-free.Temporary car-free streets
Many cities close certain streets to automobiles, typically on weekends and especially in warm weather, to provide more urban space for recreation, and to increase foot traffic to nearby businesses. Examples include Newbury Street in Boston, and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In some cases, popularity has resulted in streets being permanently closed to cars, including JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; Griffith Drive in Griffith Park, Los Angeles; and Capel Street in Dublin.Reception
Benefits
Several studies have been carried out on European carfree developments. The most comprehensive was conducted in 2000 by Jan Scheurer. Other more recent studies have been made of specific car-free areas such as Vienna's Floridsdorf car-free development.Problems and criticism
The main problems are related to parking management. Where parking is not controlled in the surrounding area, this often results in complaints from neighbours about overspill parking.There were calls for traffic to be reinstated in Trafalgar Square, London, after pedestrianization caused noise nuisance for visitors to the National Gallery. The director of the gallery is reported to have blamed pedestrianization for the "trashing of a civic space".
Local shopkeepers may be critical of the effect of pedestrianization on their businesses. Reduced through traffic can lead to fewer customers using local businesses, depending on the environment and the area's dependence on the through traffic.