30 Blocks of Broadway Will Go Car-Free on Earth Day

On Saturday, April 22, the city will open up 30 blocks of Broadway for people, creating a string of car-free areas from Union Square to Times Square. City Council transportation chair Ydanis Rodriguez and DOT announced the event this morning, and Transportation Alternatives organizer Chelsea Yamada posted a dispatch on Twitter.

It's the second year in a row that the city will be putting on "Car Free Day" events in observance of Earth Day, and the scale will be larger. Last year, there were four car-free zones, all in Manhattan, in effect for four hours each.

With Earth Day falling on a Saturday this year, the city is going bigger. In addition to Broadway, parts of St. Nicholas Avenue in Upper Manhattan, Montague Street in Brooklyn, Shore Boulevard and Woodside Avenue in Queens, and Eagle Avenue in the Bronx will be car-free from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It's not clear yet how many cross-streets will also be car-free on those routes, but last year DOT pedestrianized smaller side streets along Broadway.