Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Car Dependence

TACTICAL URBANISM: Let’s Make More Plazas

Times Square is the best example of turning car space into public space. You can still see the segments of Broadway, now filled with people, in this shot looking downtown from the north side of the Crossroads of the World.

Hey tactical urbanists: Want to know a quick way to gain street space for people? Turns out that, even before COVID-19 drove restaurants across America out of doors, it wasn't too difficult to arrange an easy-peasy treatment that would turn an unneeded roadway (aren't they all?) into a perfectly serviceable pedestrian plaza. All you need is some paint, some planters, some bollards, and some street furniture — and a local partner to help maintain it.

There are "awkward intersections" — basically triangles of unused roadway — all over the country, just aching to be turned into lovely, safe spaces for people to congregate. With time, it's likely to become permanent. Let's go!

That's the message of "The quick way to make pedestrian plazas," a new video by City Beautiful, a YouTube channel that features the strategies of tactical urbanism for the edification of city planners and livable-streets advocates. It mixes boosterism with some helpful pointers, such as best practices for dealing with Americans With Disability Act requirements and businesses that need freight loading zones.

The video (below) was produced by Dave Amos, a researcher at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. It also functions as a panoramic tour of pedestrian plazas around the United States, starting with a "People Street" in the Sunset neighborhood in Los Angeles, to Tontine Crescent in Boston, to Times and Herald squares in New York and beyond.

In fact, Amos is so gung-ho about plazas that he invites viewers to help him compile a comprehensive American database of them; the hope is that the inventory will illuminate information and techniques that will inspire municipalities around the country to install more of them — thereby lessening our car dependence.

Submit an entry by filling out the form here. Follow Amos on Twitter at @CityBeautifulYT.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: The Massachusetts Company That Traded the Trash Truck For a Bike

This small worker-owned cooperative is reimagining how to do recycling, composting, yardwork and more — no diesel required.

August 29, 2025

Friday’s Deadly Headlines

Reducing our reliance on fossil fuels would bring immediate health benefits for hundreds of thousands of people.

August 29, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: The Menace of Prosperity

Daniel Wortel-London on his new book, "The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1875–1981."

August 28, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines Are a Sneak Preview

Want to see what happens when a city makes major transit cuts? Just look at Philadelphia. It's not pretty.

August 28, 2025

What I’ve Learned From Getting Transit Wrong

"Advocacy isn’t about pretending you’ve always been right. It’s about learning, adapting, and bringing those lessons into the fight for better transit and better cities."

August 28, 2025

L.A. Council Committee Approves Step toward Eliminating Parking Requirements

Off-street parking at new developments is not going away. If the city doesn't require parking, developers will still build parking.

August 27, 2025
See all posts