30 Blocks of Broadway Will Go Car-Free on Earth Day

Ydanis Rodriguez and DOT announce six temporary pedestrian zones across the city.

Car Free Day 2017 is fast approaching. Photo: Chelsea Yamada
Car Free Day 2017 is fast approaching. Photo: Chelsea Yamada

On Saturday, April 22, the city will open up 30 blocks of Broadway for people, creating a string of car-free areas from Union Square to Times Square. City Council transportation chair Ydanis Rodriguez and DOT announced the event this morning, and Transportation Alternatives organizer Chelsea Yamada posted a dispatch on Twitter.

It’s the second year in a row that the city will be putting on “Car Free Day” events in observance of Earth Day, and the scale will be larger. Last year, there were four car-free zones, all in Manhattan, in effect for four hours each.

With Earth Day falling on a Saturday this year, the city is going bigger. In addition to Broadway, parts of St. Nicholas Avenue in Upper Manhattan, Montague Street in Brooklyn, Shore Boulevard and Woodside Avenue in Queens, and Eagle Avenue in the Bronx will be car-free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It’s not clear yet how many cross-streets will also be car-free on those routes, but last year DOT pedestrianized smaller side streets along Broadway.

Car-Free Day 2016
Broadway south of Madison Square during last year’s Car Free Day. Photo: David Meyer

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Scenes From NYC’s First “Car Free Day”

|
New York City’s first “Car Free Day,” the brainchild of City Council Transportation Chair Ydanis Rodriguez, is underway. On the streets, there are three car-free zones in Manhattan in effect from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: blocks abutting Washington Square Park, Wadsworth Avenue between 173rd and 177th Streets, and Broadway from Union Square to Madison Square. While the […]

Three Pieces of the Manhattan Grid Will Go Car-Free on Earth Day

|
New York will create three car-free zones on Earth Day, April 22, as part of an initiative called “Car Free NYC” announced by City Council Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis Rodriguez this morning. The car-free areas will be Broadway from the Flatiron Building to Union Square, the streets surrounding Washington Square Park, and Wadsworth Avenue between […]