Carfree Bedford Ave is not just about banning cars from a popular street to create a pedestrian esplanade. It is mostly about preserving the small town quality of Williamsburg and allowing for a more vital street life. Banning car traffic from Bedford Ave will improve local commerce by giving people more reasons to stick around. The proposal will help preserve what is already here and prevent generic franchises from spoiling the neighborhood.

The proposal was advanced in the spring of 2005 by Emil Choski. Since then, the plan has gathered the attention of alternative transportation advocates, grassroots organizers, community leaders, and the media.

The plan calls for the complete banning of automobiles on the stretch of Bedford Ave starting at Metropolitan Avenue and passing through and ending at McCarren park. The cross streets would be left open to cars and trucks in order to allow for necessary deliveries. The current traffic as well as the B61 bus will be rerouted to parallel avenues including Driggs Ave and Berry St. Emergency vehicles will continue to have access to Bedford Ave. Click here for a map.

What will replace the cars is a thriving pedestrian community, more outdoor seating for restaurants, islands of greenery, public sculpture, and anything else that makes the community more alive and beautiful.

Proposals such as these are based on the success of pedestrian esplanades in European cities which have existed for a long time and have a track record of success. In New York this will become one of the first and few pedestrian esplanades.

� Emil Choski 2006

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