Are You For/Against Closing Street Segments?

The driving public, after decades of being shown images on television and in print that owning a car makes you better/cooler/[add other socially positive superlatives here] than everyone else, can express outrage at the thought that planners might think of taking away "their streets".  Quite irrational I think, because if you plunk down tens of thousands of dollars for such a fancy machine, you'd think there would be a modicum of satisfaction knowing that roadway congestion equates to more quality time spent with man's most prized material possession, no?  Nonetheless, the pursuit of a rational urban roadway network is worth the struggle, and we must march forward.

For: Eliminates through-traffic in neighborhoods streets/properly redirects through-traffic to arterials; provides opportunities for new public spaces in a dense environment with little available free land; adds more interesting locations throughout the city; increases opportunities for social interactions; more fairly uses limited public space for a broader range of residents.

Not all of these are true or valid for every situation, but they are the common arguments.  In an entirely philosophical complete streets debate, one might argue that eliminating vehicular use on any street makes that street incomplete.  A counter argument to this could be that, looking at the city as a whole, just as some streets are, where appropriate, designed exclusively for cars (tunnels, highway ramps, etc.), other streets are justified, where appropriate, to be designed exclusive of cars.