It is difficult to imagine, but that is exactly what the organizers of Car Free Day NYC want New Yorkers to consider today. On this Earth Day, the advocacy group is asking people to travel by subway, bus or bicycle, or to car pool, instead of driving.
The environmentally conscious idea caught on in Paris last year when officials there, just months before the city hosted an international summit that yielded a landmark climate accord, banned cars in part of the city and pedestrians flocked to the Champs-Élysées.
In New York City, several streets in Manhattan will be closed today: Broadway, between the Flatiron Building and Union Square; streets near Washington Square Park; and Wadsworth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, between 173rd and 177th Streets.
Dozens of local organizations are participating. Citi Bike is offering free rides to mark the occasion. Columbia University is providing free bus rides to campus.
Even Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would go without a car as much as possible today, taking public transit and walking “whenever feasible.”
The main organizer, Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, said the goal was twofold: to reduce emissions, and to bring attention to the need for more investment in mass transportation. Mr. Rodriguez, who lives in the Inwood section of Manhattan, said he would leave his car at home and take the bus or rent a bicycle.
Some residents, he said, are already on board with the message: millennials.
“This group of New Yorkers has been raised without looking at a car as something important in their lives,” Mr. Rodriguez said.
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