Originally published in Business Insider on August 9, 2020 (written with Kay Cheng)
Prior to the pandemic, it was difficult for any American city dweller to imagine cars ceding their reign over our streets.
We've given over space to vehicles in crowded urban centers for decades. But our cities didn't always look this way. Take a trip through New York City in this MOMA film, cut together from archival footage from 1911.
In nearly every frame of the old film, it is pedestrians that dominate the city, rather than vehicles. Fifth Avenue is a promenade with pedestrian space spanning the width of two car lanes. Sidewalks are wide, some with huge plant beds. "Parking" in this era did not have anything to do with cars — parking referred to the park space allocated alongside the roadway.
Madison Avenue looks like the reverse image of the traffic-jammed thoroughfare of today, with a narrow lane for vehicles and pedestrians meandering from the broad sidewalks onto the roadway, rather than being forced to the controlled crosswalks of today.
During the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, when you walked or biked through New York City, the experience was unlike any version of the city that has come before. Streets were nearly empty of cars and trucks. The air was clearer, the roar of traffic suddenly quieter.
Now, walk through the city and you'll bump into some of the miles of streets that have been closed to vehicles as part of the city's "Open Streets" program. The city is on its way to closing 100 miles of streets to traffic, to give residents space to be outside while complying with social distancing requirements. Diners, pedestrians, bikers, skateboarders, scooters and roller skaters are slowly emerging from their confinement to reclaim what was lost to the automobile for a century.