Why Broadway Should Be Fully Car-Free from Union Square to Columbus Circle
Times Square used to be filled with cars. So was Central Park.
Today, having cars dominate either of these seems stupid. Because it is.
Central Park is much more pleasant when you hear birds chirping instead of engines revving, and Times Square isn’t really a walkable tourist attraction if you let it get clogged up with traffic.
It’s time to continue reclaiming public space from cars. Making Broadway car-free from Union Square to Columbus Circle is an obvious continuation.
For years, New York City has been moving toward this through its Broadway Vision program, a redesign effort led by the Department of Transportation.
The early results have been clear improvements to any pedestrian, cyclist, or transit user.
Blocks that were once dominated by traffic now host plazas filled with tables and chairs, bike lanes, and wider sidewalks. What’s missing is continuity. Right now, the changes come in scattered fragments. Extending pedestrianization along the full stretch of Broadway would connect these improvements into a single, world-class linear park.
Pedestrianizing Midtown’s portion of Broadway is especially a no-brainer because this part of Manhattan is one of the densest, most transit-rich places in the world.
Broadway’s Transformation So Far
You know what, a video will show this a lot better. Here’s some footage I took of the redesigned Broadway between 17th and 21st Streets, just north of Union Square. The new layout features a two-way bike connection, pedestrian plazas, and lots of plants.
- 2009: Times Square goes car-free between 42nd and 47th Streets.
- 2010s: Herald Square, Madison Square, and Flatiron plazas added.
- 2020: Broadway Vision program launched by NYC DOT.
- 2023–2024: Redesigns north of Union Square (17th–21st Streets) with plazas, bike lanes, and planters.
- Pedestrian use: In some Midtown blocks, over 3,000 pedestrians per hour vs. only ~1% of travelers in cars.
- Safety: Times Square pedestrianization led to a 35% drop in crashes in the first year.
- Economic impact: Retail sales in Times Square increased after pedestrianization, showing (once again) that businesses thrive when streets prioritize people.
Lessons From Existing Car-Free Blocks
Making stretches of cities car-free is no longer a hypothetical. We know what will happen.
- Traffic will not worsen elsewhere (it’s the reverse effect of induced demand.)
- There will be fewer crashes and injuries
- There will be more green space and shade
- Business will improve
- People will like it.
Every time New York has reclaimed space from cars, the pattern has been the same: safer streets, stronger local businesses, and more vibrant public life. The fears about gridlock and economic collapse never materialized. In a place as transit-rich and walkable as Manhattan, traffic doesn’t just “spill over.” It evaporates, as people choose to walk, bike, or take the subway instead.
Even the city’s annual Summer Streets program proves the point. For a few weekends every August, major corridors like Park Avenue and parts of Broadway are closed to cars. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers turn out to walk, bike, and simply enjoy the city in a way that feels almost European. It’s wildly popular, but temporary.
The lesson is obvious: people want this. We just need to make it permanent.
The Case for a Fully Car-Free Broadway (Union Square → Columbus Circle)
What if instead of patchwork plazas, we had one continuous green corridor? Imagine stepping out of Union Square and walking, biking, or rolling all the way to Columbus Circle without crossing paths with cars. A Broadway lined with trees and planters, with wide sidewalks, outdoor seating, and protected bike lanes.
This is a logical next step. And with congestion pricing reducing traffic even more, this is the perfect moment to reclaim the space permanently.
The benefits go beyond convenience.
- Strengthen climate resilience with trees, shade, and permeable surfaces to absorb stormwater. We can add more green infrastructure.
- Improve air quality and reduce noise, especially in some of the densest parts of Manhattan.
- Boost safety by eliminating one of the city’s most dangerous conflict points between cars and people.
- Promote health by making walking, biking, and even sitting outside more pleasant and accessible.
- Improve cycling. More people will want to bike in Manhattan.
- Create a world-class linear park that rivals the High Line but stretches through the very core of Manhattan.
Broadway already functions as New York’s cultural backbone. Making it car-free would finally make it feel like it.
Addressing the Challenges
Of course, the moment anyone suggests removing cars, a familiar set of objections comes up. Deliveries, accessibility, traffic, ambulances. Let’s go through these legit concerns.
Deliveries & loading. Midtown is full of businesses that need regular deliveries. The solution isn’t to keep Broadway clogged with cars all day. It’s to create time-restricted delivery windows and designate loading zones on nearby cross streets. This is exactly how it already works in places like Times Square.
Emergency vehicles. This is a common critique too. All bike lanes in New York City are designed to allow ambulances to fit in during an emergency.
Accessibility. A car-free Broadway would actually make the corridor more accessible, not less. Wider sidewalks mean more space for benches, ramps, and curb cuts. Protected bike lanes aren’t just for cyclists. Many wheelchair users already rely on them as smoother, safer travel paths. Shorter crossings and calmer intersections reduce barriers for everyone, but especially for people with disabilities, older adults, and parents with strollers.
Traffic concerns. When Times Square was pedestrianized, when Central Park closed to cars, when bike lanes expanded traffic didn’t spiral out of control. Some drivers chose other routes. Others shifted to transit, reducing the amount of total cars. The same would happen here. In a city where over 80% of people arriving in Midtown already come by foot, bike, or transit, Broadway is simply too valuable to waste on the tiny minority arriving by car.
What a Car-Free Broadway Could Look Like
In her book Emergent Strategy, adrienne maree brown talks about the power of “science fiction behavior,” the idea that if we want a better future, we have to imagine it first.
A fully car-free Broadway is exactly that kind of future-making project. It requires us to picture something different and then bring it to life.
Imagine walking out of Union Square on a summer morning. Instead of dodging honking taxis and delivery vans, you step into a shaded promenade lined with trees and planters. Cyclists glide by in protected bike express lanes. Outdoor cafés spill into the plazas, where workers eat lunch, tourists snap photos, and kids race around on scooters. The noise of engines is replaced with conversation, footsteps, and music from street performers.
Keep walking and you pass Herald Square, Times Square, Columbus Circle, all reimagined as continuous green space. You could jog from Union Square to Central Park without ever competing with cars. You could commute by bike, protected from traffic the entire way. You could sit on a bench under a tree in Midtown, not on a sidewalk barely wide enough for a stroller, dodging through slow-walking pedestrians. The most hectic part of the city now has more space to breathe.
Over time, the temporary planters would give way to permanent trees rooted deep into Broadway’s spine, transforming the corridor into what could be called New York’s “Linear Central Park.” A park not on the city’s edges or in elevated form, but stitched into the heart of Manhattan, accessible to everyone who lives, works, and visits there.
And why stop at Union Square to Columbus Circle? As Times Square has shown, when we give space for pedestrians, there’s even more demand for wider sidewalks. If Broadway is more valuable as a space for people than for cars in Midtown, isn’t that true of all of Broadway?
What about every major street in all of New York City? What if all of the crosstown streets had buses coming every three minutes and rows of trees on either side?
We can do it, but we have to start by imagining it.
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