Mix of Successes and Failures for Pedestrian Malls

Yonah Freemark says that density is key.

Freemark writes, "California's capital may have suffered from a density problem: it didn't have enough residents and office workers in the immediate surrounding area to keep its streets active during off-hours, so the pedestrian mall often felt too quiet to be comfortable. The fact that many consumers visiting the street arrived by automobile made the situation worse. In New York, where there are hundreds of people on virtually every block, there's little to fear, and most people visiting businesses likely come on foot anyway, so getting rid of car access won't change much."