Honnestly, I'm not convinced about your argument, because creating a walk only part on a previously mixed road requires lot of planning and motivation beforehan

Honnestly, I'm not convinced about your argument, because creating a walk only part on a previously mixed road requires lot of planning and motivation beforehand, otherwise it's just a failure. The previous mayor of Brussels city imposed it on one of the major road in the center — a wide, full of shop road. They did not put the hard work upfront, so it's mostly a closed road for not so obvious reason with some crummy decoration "waiting for improvement some days in the future". What was a busy neighbourhood is turning quite nasty : it's ugly, shop are closing because people don't have way to get to them, insecurity is on the rise, incivility coming from cyclist are way up, emergency services are complaining about access — so the only "advantage" is the reduced pollution in this specific street. Traffic hasn't reduced otherwise, it's just elsewhere clogging more street than usual. So I'm not convinced it's the perfect answer : it's probably part of the answer, but city planning need to change so it could be done properly and we're not there yet.