Europe ,
Rotterdam's main shopping street, 1961 ,
Helsinki's main shopping street, 2007 ,
Madrid ,
Istanbul A large number of European towns and cities have made part of their centres car-free since the early 1960s. These are often accompanied by
car parks on the edge of the pedestrianised zone, and, in the larger cases,
park and ride schemes.
Armenia Northern Avenue, located in the
Kentron district of central
Yerevan, is a large pedestrian avenue. The avenue was inaugurated in 2007 and is mainly home to residential buildings, offices, luxury shops and restaurants.
Azerbaijan Nizami Street, commonly known as Torgoviy is a large pedestrian and shopping street in downtown
Baku,
Azerbaijan named after the classical Azerbaijani poet
Nizami Ganjavi.
Belgium In
Belgium,
Brussels has implemented Europe's largest pedestrian zone (French:
Le Piétonnier), in phases starting in 2015; this will cover . The area covers much of the historic center within the
Small Ring (the
ring road built on the site of the
14th-century walls), including the
Grand-Place/Grote Markt, the
Place de Brouckère/De Brouckèreplein, the
Boulevard Anspach/Anspachlaan, and the
Place de la Bourse/Beursplein.
Denmark Central
Copenhagen is one of the oldest and largest: it was converted from car traffic into a pedestrian zone in 1962 as an experiment, and is centered on
Strøget, which is not a single street but a series of interconnected avenues which create a very large pedestrian zone, although it is crossed in places by streets with vehicular traffic. Most of these zones allow delivery trucks to service the businesses there during the early morning, and street-cleaning vehicles will usually go through these streets after most shops have closed for the night. It has grown in size from in 1962 to in 1996.
Germany A number of
German islands ban or strictly limit the private use of motor vehicles.
Helgoland,
Hiddensee, and all but two of the
East Frisian islands are car-free;
Borkum and
Norderney have car-free zones and strictly limit automobile use during the summer season and in certain areas, also forbidding travel at night. Some areas provide exceptions for police and emergency vehicles; Heligoland also bans bicycles. In the early 1980s, the Alternative Liste für Demokratie und Umweltschutz (which later became part of
Alliance 90/The Greens) unsuccessfully campaigned to make
West Berlin a car-free zone.
Netherlands In the
Netherlands, the inner city of
Arnhem has a pedestrian zone () within the boundaries of the following streets and squares: Nieuwe Plein, Willemsplein, Gele Rijdersplein, Looierstraat, Velperbinnensingel, Koningsplein, St. Catharinaplaats, Beekstraat, Walburgstraat, Turfstraat, Kleine Oord, and Nieuwe Oeverstraat.
Rotterdam's city center was almost completely destroyed by
German bombing in May 1940. The Lijnbaan served as a model for many other such streets in the early post-
World War II era, such as
Warsaw,
Prague,
Hamburg, and the UK's first pedestrianised
shopping precinct in
Stevenage in 1959. Three exceptions to motor vehicles could apply to specific sections of these three zones, namely: "logistics allowed within window times (5 to 10:30 a.m)", "logistics allowed 24/7", and "commercial traffic allowed during market days". Early post-1945 new towns carried on the tradition of providing some traffic-free shopping streets. However, in the conversion of traditional shopping streets to pedestrian precincts, Britain started only in 1967 (versus Germany's first conversion in 1929, or the first in the U.S. in 1959). Since then growth was rapid, such that by 1980 a study found that most British towns and cities had a pedestrian shopping precinct; 1,304 in total.
Turkey In
Istanbul,
İstiklal Caddesi is a pedestrian street (except for a historic streetcar that runs along it) and a major tourist draw.
U.S. and Canada Sparks Street Mall Canada Some Canadian examples are the
Sparks Street Mall area of
Ottawa, the
Distillery District in
Toronto, Scarth Street Mall in
Regina,
Stephen Avenue Mall in
Calgary (with certain areas open to parking for permit holders) and part of Prince Arthur Street and the
Gay Village in
Montreal. Algonquin and Ward's Islands, parts of the
Toronto Islands group, are also car-free zones for all 700 residents. Since summer 2004, Toronto has also been experimenting with "
Pedestrian Sundays"in its busy
Kensington Market.
Granville Mall in
Halifax, Nova Scotia was a run-down section of buildings on Granville Street built in the 1840s that was restored in the late 1970s. The area was then closed off to vehicles.
United States Downtown pedestrian zones In the
United States, these zones are commonly called pedestrian malls or pedestrian streets and today are relatively rare, with a few notable exceptions. In 1959,
Kalamazoo was the first American city to implement a "pedestrian mall" in its downtown core. This became a method that some cities applied for their downtowns to compete with the growing suburban shopping malls of the time. In the 1960s and 70s, over 200 towns in the United States adopted this approach. A number of streets and malls in
New York City are now pedestrian-only, including
6½ Avenue,
Fulton Street, parts of
Broadway, and a block of
25th Street. A portion of
Third Street in Santa Monica in
Greater Los Angeles was converted into a pedestrian mall in the 1960s to become what is now the Third Street Promenade, a very popular shopping district located just a few blocks from the beach and
Santa Monica Pier.
Lincoln Road in
Miami Beach, which had previously been a shopping street with traffic, was converted into a pedestrian only street in 1960. The designer was Morris Lapidus. Lincoln Road Mall is now one of the main attractions in Miami Beach. The idea of exclusive pedestrian zones lost popularity through the 1980s and into the 1990s and results were generally disappointing, but are enjoying a renaissance with the 1989 renovation and relaunch of the
Third Street Promenade in
Santa Monica, California,
Outside large cities enjoy the carfree highway (
M-185) on
Mackinac Island.]
Mackinac Island, between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, banned
horseless carriages in 1896, making it auto-free. The original ban still stands, except for emergency vehicles. Travel on the island is largely by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. An road,
M-185 rings the island, and numerous roads cover the interior. M-185 is the only highway in the United States without motorized vehicles.
Fire Island in
Suffolk County, New York is pedestrianised east of the
Fire Island Lighthouse and west of
Smith Point County Park (with the exception of emergency vehicles).
Supai, Arizona, located within the
Havasupai Indian Reservation is entirely car-free, the only community in the United States where mail is still carried out by mule. Supai is located eight miles from the nearest road, and is accessible only by foot, horse/mule, or helicopter.
Culdesac Tempe, a 17-acre (0.069 square kilometers) car-free district in
Tempe, Arizona, is intended to be the nation's first market-rate rental apartment district to ban its tenants from owning cars. Bikes and emergency vehicles are allowed. It has received significant investments from executives at
Lyft and
Opendoor.
Latin America Argentina ,
Buenos Aires, Argentina Argentina's big cities,
Córdoba,
Mendoza and
Rosario, have lively pedestrianised street centers () combined with
town squares and parks which are crowded with people walking at every hour of the day and night. In
Buenos Aires, some stretches of
Calle Florida have been pedestrianised since 1913, which makes it one of the oldest car-free thoroughfares in the world today. Pedestrianised Florida,
Lavalle and other streets contribute to a vibrant shopping and restaurant scene where
street performers and
tango dancers abound, streets are crossed with vehicular traffic at
chamfered corners.
Brazil in
Curitiba Paquetá Island in
Rio de Janeiro is auto-free. The only cars allowed on the island are police and ambulance vehicles. In Rio de Janeiro, the roads beside the beaches are auto-free on Sundays and holidays. Downtown Rio de Janeiro, Ouvidor Street, over almost its entire length, has been continually a pedestrian space since the mid-nineteenth century when not even carts or carriages were allowed. And the Saara District, also downtown, consists of some dozen or more blocks of colonial streets, off-limits to cars, and crowded with daytime shoppers. Likewise, many of the city's hillside favelas are effectively pedestrian zones as the streets are too narrow and/or steep for automobiles.
Eixo Rodoviário, in
Brasília, which is 13 kilometers long and 30 meters wide and is an
arterial road connecting the center of that city from both southward and northward wings of Brasília, perpendicular to the well known Eixo Monumental (
Monumental Axis in English), is auto-free on Sundays and holidays.
Rua XV de Novembro (15 November Street) in
Curitiba is one of the first major pedestrian streets in Brazil.
Chile Chile has many large pedestrian streets. An example is
Paseo Ahumada and Paseo Estado in Santiago, Paseo Barros Arana in Concepción and Calle Valparaíso in Viña del Mar.
Colombia During his 1998–2001 term, the former
Bogotá mayor, U.S.-born
Enrique Peñalosa, created several pedestrian streets,
plazas and
bike paths integrated with a new
bus rapid transit system. The historic center of
Cartagena closes some streets to cars during certain hours. In downtown
Armenia, Colombia there is a large pedestrian street where several boutiques are located.
Santa Marta also has permanent pedestrian zones in the historic center around the
Cathedral Basílica of Santa Marta.
Mexico in the
Historic center of Mexico City The
Historic center of Mexico City has 12 pedestrian streets including
Madero Street, and as of 30 June 2020, is expanding the number to 42 pedestrian streets. Génova is a busy pedestrian street in the
Zona Rosa as is
Plaza Garibaldi downtown, where mariachis play. The old city of
Guanajuato is largely pedestrian. The steep and/or narrow side streets were never accessible by cars and most other streets were pedestrianized in the 1960s after through traffic was moved to a system of former flood control tunnels that was no longer necessary due to a new dam.
Playa del Carmen has a pedestrian mall,
Quinta Avenida, ("Fifth Avenue") that stretches and receives 4 million visitors annually with hundreds of shops and restaurants.
Peru Jirón de La Unión in Lima is a traditional pedestrian street located in the Historic Centre of Lima, part of the capital of Peru. In the city of Arequipa, Mercaderes is also a considerably large pedestrian street. Also, recently three of the four streets surrounding the city's main square or "Plaza de Armas" were also made pedestrian.
South and East Asia , the walkway at
al-Madina Souq Mainland China Nanjing Road in Shanghai is perhaps the most well-known pedestrian zone in
mainland China.
Wangfujing is a famous tourist and retail oriented pedestrian zone in
Beijing.
Chunxilu in
Chengdu is the most well known in western China. Dongmen is the busiest business zone in
Shenzhen.
Zhongyang Street is a historical large pedestrian street in
Harbin.
Hong Kong in
Hong Kong In
Hong Kong, since 2000, the government has been implementing full-time or part-time pedestrian streets in a number of areas, including Causeway Bay, Central, Wan Chai, Mong Kok, and Tsim Sha Tsui. The most popular pedestrian street is
Sai Yeung Choi Street. It was converted into a pedestrian street in 2003. From December 2008 to May 2009, there were three
acid attacks during which corrosive liquids were placed in plastic bottles and thrown from the roof of apartments down onto the street.
India Vehicles have been banned in the town of
Matheran, in
Maharashtra,
India since the time it was discovered in 1854. In India, a citizens' initiative in Goa state, has made 18 June Road, Panjim's main shopping boulevard a Non-Motorised Zone(NoMoZo). The road is converted into a NoMoZo for half a day on one Sunday every month. In Pune, Maharashtra, similar efforts have been made to convert M.G. Road (a.k.a. Main Street) into an open-air mall. The project in question aimed to create a so-called "Walking Plaza". In May 2019, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) made the busy Ajmal Khan Road in
Karol Bagh pedestrian-only.
Church Street in Bangalore went through a pedestrianization process
Japan Pedestrian zones in
Japan are called
hokōsha tengoku (歩行者天国, literally "pedestrian heaven"). Clis Road, in
Sendai, Japan, is a covered pedestrian mall, as is
Hondōri in
Hiroshima. Several major streets in
Tokyo are closed to vehicles during weekends. One particular temporary
hokōsha tengoku in
Akihabara was cancelled after the
Akihabara massacre in which a man rammed a truck into the pedestrian traffic and subsequently stabbed more than 12 people.
South Korea Insadong in
Seoul,
South Korea has a large pedestrian zone (
Insadong-gil) during certain hours. Also in South Korea, in 2013, in the Haenggun-dong neighbourhood of
Suwon, streets were closed to cars as a month-long car-free experiment while the city hosted the
EcoMobility World Festival. Instead of cars, residents used non-motorized vehicles provided by the festival organizers. The experiment was not unopposed; however, on balance it was considered a success. Following the festival, the city embarked on discussions about adopting the practice on a permanent basis.
Taiwan Ximending in
Wanhua District,
Taipei is a neighbourhood and shopping district. It was the first pedestrian zone in Taiwan. The district is very popular in Taiwan. In central Taiwan,
Yizhong Street is one of the most popular pedestrian shopping area in
Taichung. In Southern Taiwan, the most famous pedestrian shopping area is
Shinkuchan in
Kaohsiung.
Thailand In
Thailand, some small streets (
soi) in
Bangkok are designed to be all-time closed to automobile traffic, the city's famous shopping streets of
Sampheng Lane in
Chinatown and
Wang Lang Market nearby to
Siriraj Hospital, are the most popular for both local and tourists shopping streets. Additionally the city has built long
skywalk systems.
Walking Street, Pattaya is also closed to auto traffic.
Night markets are routinely closed to auto traffic.
Vietnam Huế in Vietnam has made 3 roads into pedestrians-only on weekend nights. Also,
Hanoi has opened an
Old Quarter Walking Street on weekend nights.
Ho Chi Minh City also changed Nguyễn Huệ street into pedestrian zone.
Middle East and North Africa North Africa contains some of the largest auto-free areas in the world. Fes-al-Bali, a
medina of
Fes,
Morocco, with its population of 156,000, may be the world's largest contiguous completely carfree area, and the medinas of
Cairo,
Tunis,
Casablanca,
Meknes,
Essaouira, and
Tangier are quite extensive. In Israel,
Tel Aviv has a pedestrian mall, near
Nahalat Binyamin Street.
Ben Yehuda Street in
Jerusalem is a pedestrian mall.
Oceania Australia ,
Sydney, Australia In
Australia, as in the US, these zones are commonly called pedestrian malls and in most cases comprise only one
street. Most pedestrian streets were created in the late 1970s and 1980s, the first being
City Walk,
Garema Place in
Canberra in 1971. Of 58 pedestrian streets created in Australia in the last quarter of the 20th century, 48 remain today, ten having re-introduced car access between 1990 and 2004. All capital cities in Australia have at least one pedestrian street of which most central are:
George Street,
Pitt Street Mall and
Martin Place in
Sydney,
Bourke Street Mall in
Melbourne,
Queen Street Mall and
Brunswick Street Mall in
Brisbane,
Rundle Mall in
Adelaide,
Hay Street and
Murray Street Malls in
Perth,
Elizabeth Street Mall in
Hobart,
City Walk in Canberra, and
Smith Street in
Darwin. Many other mid-sized and regional Australian cities also feature pedestrian malls, examples include Rooke Street
Devonport Langtree Avenue
Mildura,
Cavill Avenue Surfers Paradise, Bridge Street
Ballarat, Nicholas Street
Ipswich, Hargreaves Street
Bendigo, Maude Street
Shepparton and Little Mallop Street
Geelong.,
Hobart, Australia Empirical studies by
Jan Gehl indicate an increase of pedestrian traffic as result of public domain improvements in the centres of Melbourne with 39% increase between 1994 and 2004 and Perth with 13% increase between 1993 and 2009. Most intensive pedestrian traffic flows on a summer weekday have been recorded in Bourke Street Mall Melbourne with 81,000 pedestrians (2004), New Zealand's second-largest city,
Christchurch, made its main shopping streets (Cashel & High Street) pedestrian-only in 1982 and created
City Mall, also commonly known as Cashel Mall. The concept was first proposed in 1965, around the same time Wellington proposed Cuba Street's pedestrianisation. After the success of Cuba Mall in Wellington, Christchurch decided to continue with the plans. In 1976 the
Bridge of Remembrance was pedestrianised, and eventually in August 1982 the entire City Mall was pedestrianised and fully opened to the public.
Queenstown has made most of its town centre a pedestrian zone with the lower part of Ballarat Street converted in the 1970s and turned into
Queenstown Mall. Most recently, Lower Beach Street has been partially pedestrianised with now only one-way traffic for cars.
Auckland's
Lower Queen Street was pedestrianised in 2020. Town Centre–style pedestrian malls rose in popularity in the 1970 & 1980s, springing up around New Zealand after the success of Cuba Mall. Many, however, have since fallen into disrepair and abandonment and are now classified as
Dead malls, including
Bishopdale Village Mall,
Otara Town Centre, and
New Brighton Mall. Pedestrian malls are still being built, however much more scarcely and now are usually called Town Centres and have parking on the outskirts, including
Rolleston Fields, The Sands Town Centre, and
The Landing Wigram. A proposal has been made for a pedestrian priority community near
Papakura in
Auckland. The community would be called
Sunfield and cost $4 Billion NZD to build. It is designed to have 4,400 homes and is projected to decrease normal car usage by 90% compared to typical suburbs. It has run into challenges after the project being rejected by
Kāinga Ora for fast-tracking following Covid-19; construction authorities took
Kāinga Ora to court over the matter. ==See also==