42nd Street

Crosstown street through Midtown Manhattan. In Bicycle Diaries David Byrne proposes turning it into a pedestrian street.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
Bicycle Diaries	David Byrne	subject	Byrne imagines it as an elongated plaza of theaters, trees, cafés and free WiFi, since cars barely move there anyway.

Bicycle Diaries — David Byrne (2009)

Source: Original · Readwise highlight

In my opinion, Forty-second Street could easily be a pedestrian street—well, it almost is now, with all the stalled traffic, picture taking, and jaywalking.

• Role: subject
• In the book: After Enrique Peñalosa urges New Yorkers to imagine Broadway as a pedestrian street, Byrne offers his own candidate: Forty-second Street as an elongated plaza with theaters, restaurants, trees, central seating, outdoor cafés and free WiFi. He follows it with the argument that building more roads never relieves congestion.
• Why it matters: It is his specific, local application of the book’s case for taking street space back from cars.