Pastel-colored dots cover a 1.8-kilometer stretch of Viracocha street in Quito, Ecuador.
Courtesy of Global Designing Cities Initiative
The Cities Keeping Their Car-Free Spaces
The open streets of the pandemic reclaimed public space for pedestrians and bicyclists. From Bogotá to New York to Stockholm, some of those changes have become permanent.
The early days of the pandemic ushered in a new urgency to create more public space as restrictions on indoor gatherings left urban dwellers yearning for the outdoors. But while many of these efforts were intended only to be temporary, some have endured.
In the last three years, many cities have taken back streets and parking lots from cars, turning them into dining and play areas for pedestrians. And as biking boomed, some governments fast-tracked efforts to make major city arteries safer and more accessible for cyclists. Others completely reimagined how residential and commercial corridors should be designed, even in the face of pushback against the broader open streets movement.