Time Square pedestrian plaza. Photo credit: Ed Yourdon
New York City has undergone some major changes in recent years from a transportation standpoint. One of the boldest and most visible changes has been the creation of pedestrian plazas throughout the city, most notably in Times Square. Having created many acres of pedestrian space, the rapid rate at which New York has been able to implement so many plazas has been in part because of the simple implementation process. While extending sidewalks by pouring concrete can be time and cost intensive, New York has – as was done in Time Square – cheaply and quickly created plazas by merely removing automobile access on a section of street and painting over the asphalt and laid down seats for pedestrians to use. To get a better idea of what all this entails, check out the creation of one of New York’s newest pedestrian plazas, the Corona Plaza at Roosevelt Ave in Queens, in this timelapse video
Video credit: NYCDOT
Pretty spectacular thing to see, isn’t it? The Corona Plaza happens to be adjacent to a transit hub which makes one wonder, where in the Bay Area could such a plaza make sense– next to a heavily used BART station, perhaps?
