Temporary 'Shared Street' Coming To Chinatown

CHINATOWN, NY — Two blocks of Chinatown will be largely closed off to cars on Friday night, allowing for pedestrians and cyclists to claim the area as their own.

The streets at the intersection of Mott Street and Worth Street will transform on Friday starting at about 5 p.m. The event is part of the NYC transportation department's larger initiative to test out the shared street infrastructure at busy intersections throughout the city.

The shared street concept, which has been successfully rolled out in cities around the world, advocates for a more equitable distribution of public space between cars and everyone else. On a shared street, cyclists, pedestrians and slow-moving cars are meant to happily coexist. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Friday night's event will include a number of local vendors, as well as family-friendly games and activities as part of the special event.

Earlier this week, the city's transportation department made a permanent shared street at a Flatiron intersection, upgrading the area's design and infrastructure to make it easier for pedestrians to safely traverse the area. The stretch of Broadway between 24th and 25th streets in the Flatiron district has been redesigned to make pedestrians a priority. City transit officials opened the new pedestrian-focused corridor on Wednesday morning, marking a transition for the busy intersection of Broadway, 24th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Lead image credit: Spencer Platt / Staff / Getty Images News