Green Light for Midtown — New York's Test-Then-Build Times Square Pedestrian Plazas

Green Light for Midtown was a one-year trial launched in 2009 in which New York City DOT closed sections of Broadway to vehicles at Times Square and Herald Square and reallocated the space to pedestrian plazas using paint, planters and movable chairs. The project was designed as a reversible test with a formal evaluation.
NYC DOT's January 2010 evaluation report found that pedestrian injuries fell 35% against a 2006–2008 average (about 40% at the two plazas), injuries to motorists and passengers fell 63%, and the number of pedestrians walking in the roadway at Times Square fell 80%. Pedestrian volumes rose 11% on Broadway and 7th Avenue in Times Square and 6% at Herald Square. A survey found 74% of New Yorkers agreed Times Square had improved dramatically.
Traffic results were mixed: taxi GPS data showed northbound trips in West Midtown improved 17% but southbound trips declined 2%; 6th Avenue travel times improved 15% and 7th Avenue 4%, while crosstown streets showed variable declines.
Caveats: the evaluation was carried out by the delivering agency, covers only the first year, and does not break results down by income group. The city nevertheless made the plazas permanent, and the approach became a template for low-cost street experiments elsewhere.

Read the full analysis: https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/broadway_report_final2010_web.pdf