Right, but in a lot of non-US cities, "pedestrian areas" covers a much greater proportion of restaurants. Secondly, even for restaurants _on_ roads for cars, th

Right, but in a lot of non-US cities, "pedestrian areas" covers a much greater proportion of restaurants. Secondly, even for restaurants _on_ roads for cars, they often have space "out back" where the buildings on street itself provides the noise dampening for the dining area. Since the buildings are terraced/joined, it's effectively a wall of buildings between the dining areas out back and the road itself.