Skip to main content
City of St. Louis Home

Car-Free Street Pilot Programs

From "Share Your Policy Ideas"

Go to the project

We deserve urban public spaces without loud engines, pollution, and reckless driving. Cities abroad figured this out, and even other U.S. cities figured this out, but in St. Louis we only experience a taste of this during a few festivals such as Cinco de Mayo or Mardi Gras. Therefore, I propose that the city experiment with pilot programs to allow communities the opportunity to study the impact of more long-term street closures to car on the surrounding communities.

This could require some of the following steps:

  1. Determine a list of prospective quarter-mile street segments for car-free street pilot programs in the following categories: a neighborhood commercial corridor, a residential area, and Downtown. All segments should be contiguous. All segments should also have direct bus or MetroLink access.
  2. Designate at least one per category to move forward with the support of the local community organizations.
  3. Implement a study before and during the pilot to gauge the environmental and social impacts of the pilot programs on each segment.
  4. Collaborate with community organizations to determine how to activate these spaces whether for food stalls, patios, performance space, mobile art galleries, or something else.
  5. Implement a pilot plan for 6 consecutive months and allow options to renew the program or make permanent changes after the pilot.

Comments(4)

Commenting is not possible because this project is currently not active.
Most recent comments have loaded.
Profile of Steven Church
Posted by:Steven Church
1 year ago
If they wanted to implement this it should require 100% of tenants on that block and the surrounding blocks to approve. Modern life is designed for vehicles we can never safely do vehicle free here.
    Profile of Malik L
    Posted by:Malik L
    1 year ago
    Asking for 100% approval is unrealistic. If we did that for every decision, we would never have any change. I would, however, support a simply majority, which is the norm for other types of developments. I disagree with the self-fulfilling prophecy that because St. Louis is "car-centric" it should always stay that way. My family lived in this area since the city was filled with streetcars. Some of my family lived here even before cars and streetcars were invented. This city can change and adapt. It's just a matter of political and social will. Many other modern cities across the US took modest steps into improve themselves regardless of "car-centricity." I believe my proposal for a pilot is pretty modest given I only ask for a small segment of three streets. I'm not requesting an entire neighborhood bans vehicle ownership. However, we may agree that there are areas of the city where such a pilot would be more feasible than others. For example, areas where parking lot entries and curb cuts are located along side streets would be more feasible options. Streets with residential parking in the back would be more feasible. Factors such as these could be evaluated among a list of potential corridors.
    • 1 like
    Profile of Steven Church
    Posted by:Steven Church
    1 year ago
    @Malik L I disagree. It is not feasible given the modern way of life.
    • 1 like
    Profile of Andy Waschick
    Posted by:Andy Waschick
    1 year ago
    We should take every opportunity to de-emphasize the primacy of the automobile in our city. Reserving spaces for human-scale interaction, free from the inherent alienation of wasteful, polluting, dangerous rolling metal boxes, increases those spaces' utility and attractiveness and reminds people that we are a vibrant, living community, and not just an aggregation point for transactions.
    • 8 likes

    Share

    Posted by

    Profile of Malik LMalik L on September 14, 2025

    Current status

    expired

    Tags

    Transportation & Commerce
    Housing, Urban Development & Zoning