Turning Streets Into Temporary Playgrounds
August 12th, 2008New York City’s Department of Transportation recently kicked of their ‘Summer Streets’ program, similar to Bogota’s Ciclovia the program temporarily closes major streets to automobiles, allowing people to takeover the space and use it to walk, bike, or just hangout. Like Bogota, they also provided health and fitness activities to encourage people to get out and exercise.
Do you think this could happen in Oklahoma City? Would we be willing to give some space back to pedestrians, even if only for a day? Creating a permanent pedestrian friendly environment downtown will take some time. It will require the full commitment of the city with each new development, zoning change, and public improvement. But closing a street for a day takes nothing more than the will and a “road closed” sign. If you have ever been downtown during the day on a Saturday, then you know that traffic is not really a problem. It would be great to close a couple streets from downtown all the way to the trails at the river every Saturday. South of 10th Street on Broadway then down Shields to the river is my preference. The YMCA would be able to provide some exercise programming and the two new bicycle shops – Bicycle Alley and Schlegel’s Bicycles – could serve as headquarter for bike rentals, etc.
If you are interested in improving things on a more permanent basis, check out this post on Mapping Pedestrian Friendliness in OKC!
August 16th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
[...] News » News Turning Streets Into Temporary Playgrounds2008-08-16 19:33:30In take some time. … for a permanent pedestrian friendly environment downtown [...]
August 17th, 2008 at 11:44 am
That’s pretty cool, and it would be a big deal for OKC to host something like that. It would be nice if it could start with something like 10th St. to the River along one major street, and then expand gradually up to 23rd and even up Western Ave.
October 4th, 2008 at 9:49 am
[...] public links >> playgrounds Turning Streets Into Temporary Playgrounds Saved by palawanprincesa on Thu 02-10-2008 Graffiti on the Playground… Saved by MeoMoe on Wed [...]
February 8th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Love the idea. Living downtown, the weekends are the best – when the traffic is out and the city is relaxed. If you made the street closing an EVENT, it would draw people down to downtown to experience first hand. Great idea. Do it.