On February 11th 2010, Mayor Bloomberg of New York city announced that Times Square and Herald Square were to become permanently car free, after a successful trial period which began last spring. Of the change, Mayor Bloomberg said:

In this day and age if you go around the world, all the other great cities have already tried to reduce the number of cars on their streets and convert some of the open spaces into space for other people.

This notion of opening space for people is the main driving force behind the pedestrianisation of city centres, and the reason for Geneva's plans to close 200 of their streets to cars, or as city council member Fabianne Fischer puts it:

It's not really to close 200 roads or streets in the center of Geneva, but to open 200 streets to improved life in the neighbourhood.

The plan is yet to be enacted, and is already facing some opposition from large businesses, but if it becomes a reality, Geneva will become one of the world's most pedestrian friendly cities. Fischer believes that closing these 200 streets to cars will create a highly liveable micro-city that benefits residents and the environment:

200 places for pedestrian life or relationships corresponds to 200 schools, kindergartens, or even every type of people at home. The idea is to concentrate these pedestrian zones near these places in order to protect the more fragile people, older people, younger people.

Another city that recently became car free was Washington DC, though this wasn't because of legislation. Instead, record snowfalls experienced by the city caused the roads to become unsafe, and DC became accidentally pedestrianised. This only lasted a couple of days, but for that time, the city was transformed, with streets full of people as cars sat empty and still:

With clear benefits to residents, and growing support from government organisations, it is safe to assume that as the world becomes more urban, cities will become more pedestrianised. Judging by Mayor Bloomberg's stance, this might happen sooner rather than later for New York city:

There are other parts of the city where we're getting lots of calls from merchants who want the same thing.

And if we see more cities like Geneva develop ambitious pedestrianisation plans, the car might one day become a rare sight in urban environments.

Image courtesy of Jason L. Park on flickr