In 1979, Chicago tried making a stretch of State Street pedestrian-only (allowing bus/taxi access). It was considered a failure, and was returned to regular mot

In 1979, Chicago tried making a stretch of State Street pedestrian-only (allowing bus/taxi access). It was considered a failure, and was returned to regular motor traffic in 1996. It’s too bad – Chicago could certainly benefit from a major pedestrian district (there is a small one up in Ravenswood), but the reasons for the State Street project’s failures are debated. This piece is a good exploration: https://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/11/why-was-the-state-street-pedestrian-mall-a-failure/ https://chi.streetsblog.org/2013/03/11/why-was-the-state-str... Hopefully Toronto’s avoids the pitfalls of Chicago’s experiment, and eventually serves as a model for this kind of conversion.