Another point worth mentioning that has been used in Europe and Australia, possibly somewhere in the US. Some very busy streets always create son-et-lumiere, and perhaps justifiable anxiety about access if cars are excluded, even if only a small part of the crowds on such streets have driven there or parked in that street). In many places pedestrianisation has been accompanied by, perhaps partly justified by, the installation of light-rail/tramway. In several of the cases you mentioned, Seville and Barcelona but also Bordeaux, Nice, Montpelier and probably many more French towns and cities resulting from their program to give every town of >250,000 a tramway (to decongest downtown, creating at their periphery park-and-rides served by the tram). Or when the street is very wide, like T3-tramway on Paris' orbital Boulevardes des Maréchaux now known as Tramway des Maréchaux; the streets were not closed but a large chunk was devoted to a greenway plus the tramway. The tramway spans >30km and carries about 40m riders per year (bringing some relief to the radial Metro), though rarely seen by visitors because it is entirely circumferential about 5+km from the centre.
In Sydney Australia, which is a closer parallel to American mores with insistence on driving everywhere in giant SUVs, there was the usual ferocious resistance to putting the CBD and South East Light Rail down George Street which was the busiest CBD street at the time, so busy that cars were slower than pedestrians at peak hours (which were beginning to extend across most daylight hours). There was the now usual cost explosion along the way but it has been in operation for 6 years and, so typical of such road reallocation projects, no one could imagine ever reverting to its former car-sewer status. Of course it is boon to retail and includes the Apple Store and the fabulous QVB.
One could also mention that these CBD tramways manage to share space with pedestrians in a way which even I, a militant supporter of pedestrianisation, would not have thought likely. Even in relatively narrow streets crowded with people, like in Seville or parts of Bordeaux, these sleek low-access trams glide silently thru the streets without drama with pedestrians. The pilot project for this type of inner-city zone is Bordeaux which first trialled the wireless trams. The power is supplied via a "third rail" (a metal strip flat on the street surface) which is in the centre of the two tracks but which is activated only in segments that are entirely under the tram as it passes overhead. This means that no overhead catenary and its supporting poles etc have to be squeezed into these ancient streets or to sully often UNESCO listed zones (Bordeaux, Seville etc). Sydney is hardly UNESCO listed but the George Street section (about 3km from the harbour to Central Station) is of this type (no catenary and sharing the street with pedestrians only other than a few authorised vehicles that use it as a "Share Zone".)
Pearl Street in Boulder CO and Church Street in Burlington VT are phenomenal pedestrian malls! I'm not sure what the winter numbers are like in those places, but in the summer, they're jammed with people, public art and music, and outdoor seating at restaurants.
Fresno may have done away with one (the former Fulton Mall) but it has another: Olive Avenue in the Tower District.
What’s interesting about the Fulton Mall is when there was a public campaign recommending conversion of the six-block-long pedestrian promenade back into a street, meetings were held to get the public’s input. It seems the majority view was to de-pedestrianize it. The feds got in on the act when it awarded $15.7 million to allow the conversion to take place. The remainder of the required $20 million total came from other sources — state and local, I would guess. The idea behind this move was to stimulate commercial business activity on this section of what is now a roadway. Did it work? I believe it missed its mark in this regard. It didn’t help that many landlords raised rents which did nothing in my view but force some commercial tenants to close up shop or relocate. I think the conversion was completed in October of 2021.
One block of Hayes Street in Hayes Valley in San Francisco is closed on weekend evenings. It's not much. but it's a start. Some (a few) merchants are still grousing about the partial closure without any data to back up their claims.
Another point worth mentioning that has been used in Europe and Australia, possibly somewhere in the US. Some very busy streets always create son-et-lumiere, and perhaps justifiable anxiety about access if cars are excluded, even if only a small part of the crowds on such streets have driven there or parked in that street). In many places pedestrianisation has been accompanied by, perhaps partly justified by, the installation of light-rail/tramway. In several of the cases you mentioned, Seville and Barcelona but also Bordeaux, Nice, Montpelier and probably many more French towns and cities resulting from their program to give every town of >250,000 a tramway (to decongest downtown, creating at their periphery park-and-rides served by the tram). Or when the street is very wide, like T3-tramway on Paris' orbital Boulevardes des Maréchaux now known as Tramway des Maréchaux; the streets were not closed but a large chunk was devoted to a greenway plus the tramway. The tramway spans >30km and carries about 40m riders per year (bringing some relief to the radial Metro), though rarely seen by visitors because it is entirely circumferential about 5+km from the centre.
In Sydney Australia, which is a closer parallel to American mores with insistence on driving everywhere in giant SUVs, there was the usual ferocious resistance to putting the CBD and South East Light Rail down George Street which was the busiest CBD street at the time, so busy that cars were slower than pedestrians at peak hours (which were beginning to extend across most daylight hours). There was the now usual cost explosion along the way but it has been in operation for 6 years and, so typical of such road reallocation projects, no one could imagine ever reverting to its former car-sewer status. Of course it is boon to retail and includes the Apple Store and the fabulous QVB.
One could also mention that these CBD tramways manage to share space with pedestrians in a way which even I, a militant supporter of pedestrianisation, would not have thought likely. Even in relatively narrow streets crowded with people, like in Seville or parts of Bordeaux, these sleek low-access trams glide silently thru the streets without drama with pedestrians. The pilot project for this type of inner-city zone is Bordeaux which first trialled the wireless trams. The power is supplied via a "third rail" (a metal strip flat on the street surface) which is in the centre of the two tracks but which is activated only in segments that are entirely under the tram as it passes overhead. This means that no overhead catenary and its supporting poles etc have to be squeezed into these ancient streets or to sully often UNESCO listed zones (Bordeaux, Seville etc). Sydney is hardly UNESCO listed but the George Street section (about 3km from the harbour to Central Station) is of this type (no catenary and sharing the street with pedestrians only other than a few authorised vehicles that use it as a "Share Zone".)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Île-de-France_tramway_lines_3a_and_3b
I guess the demolition of the Embarcadero freeway was accompanied by something similar, ie. green zones with light rail?
Pearl Street in Boulder CO and Church Street in Burlington VT are phenomenal pedestrian malls! I'm not sure what the winter numbers are like in those places, but in the summer, they're jammed with people, public art and music, and outdoor seating at restaurants.
Hey Henry! Yes, I’ve never been to either but I’ve heard both have been really successful.
Fresno may have done away with one (the former Fulton Mall) but it has another: Olive Avenue in the Tower District.
What’s interesting about the Fulton Mall is when there was a public campaign recommending conversion of the six-block-long pedestrian promenade back into a street, meetings were held to get the public’s input. It seems the majority view was to de-pedestrianize it. The feds got in on the act when it awarded $15.7 million to allow the conversion to take place. The remainder of the required $20 million total came from other sources — state and local, I would guess. The idea behind this move was to stimulate commercial business activity on this section of what is now a roadway. Did it work? I believe it missed its mark in this regard. It didn’t help that many landlords raised rents which did nothing in my view but force some commercial tenants to close up shop or relocate. I think the conversion was completed in October of 2021.
One block of Hayes Street in Hayes Valley in San Francisco is closed on weekend evenings. It's not much. but it's a start. Some (a few) merchants are still grousing about the partial closure without any data to back up their claims.