Car-free zone trial planned for New York

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced plans to create car-free zones in parts of Manhattan for three Saturdays this August as part of a new trial to see the effects on the number of pedestrians and cyclists. The no car zone will run along a 6.9-mile stretch of streets through Manhattan, from the Brooklyn Bridge, north to Park Avenue and the Upper East Side.

All cars, trucks and buses will be banned on the streets along the route from 7am to 1pm on August 9, 16 and 23. The new trial is being called the ‘Summer Streets’ experiment and if it proves successful at boosting visitor numbers officials will consider doing it again, Bloomberg told reporters from the New York Times.

Officials are planning to run fitness, dance and yoga classes along the empty streets and will also rent out bicycles as part of the event.

New York is not the first major city to conduct such a trial. Similar events have been run in London, Paris and Bogotá to much success. Downtown business owners were upset, especially those running parking lots and other car related enterprises, as many will lose revenue during the period.