Summer Streets took place in New York for three consecutive Saturdays in August 2008 from 7:00 am - 1:00 pm. The route connected the Brooklyn Bridge with Central Park and there were recommended connections to the Hudson River Greenway, allowing participants to plan a route as long or short as they wish. This event took a valuable public space - New York's City's streets - and opened them up to people to play, walk, bike, and breathe. Paul White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives evaluates the summer of 2008 in an
interview in The New York Observer, as the ‘Summer of Car-Free Streets,’. He states that in a few years from now we might look back at this summer as the summer when car-free streets hit the big time and people woke up to the enormous latent demand for car-free living and walking. In this interview Paul also touches on many issues like bicycle safety, parking issues, transit and elections. Paul cites street design as the biggest impediment to safe cycling.
