A step in that direction is to block off the city streets during business hours, turning them into walking malls. I've seen some european cities to this. It wor

A step in that direction is to block off the city streets during business hours, turning them into walking malls. I've seen some european cities to this. It works well. It's not perfect, though. Some of these will let government vehicles on them, and they do often enough to make it a nuisance, like those annoying electric carts in the airport.