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Car free ‘natural cultural districts’ in the U.S.

While there are 41 entries on the list of car free places (presented in the previous entry) in the U.S., the number may be misleading. For instance, not many of us will ever hear of, say, golf-cart based Bald Head Island, North Carolina, population 173, much less ever visit it or know anyone who does.

However, many of us do live in or visit natural cultural districts, so here are the car free iterations of those you’d probably want to check out if you’re in the area:

California
Santa Monica - Third Street Promenade, 1/2 mile
Riverside - Several blocks of pedestrian mall.
Colorado
Aspen - Pedestrian malls: Three downtown blocks of E. Hyman Ave., S. Mill St., and E. Cooper Ave. (pictured)
Boulder - Pearl Street Mall - Several blocks at the city center.
Fort Collins - Four streets in downtown.
Florida - Miami - Lincoln Road Mall, 7 blocks in South Beach.
Iowa - Iowa City - Pedestrian mall, several blocks downtown near the University of Iowa
Louisiana - New Orleans - Several blocks between the French Quarter and the river
New York - Ithaca - Ithaca Commons pedestrian mall, two blocks
Oregon - Portland - RiverPlace, 1/2 mile downtown waterfront pedestrian promenade
Texas - San Antonio - River Walk, famous restaurant/shop-lined waterway
Vermont - Burlington - Church Street Marketplace, four blocks
Virginia - Charlottesville - Main Street pedestrian mall, several blocks
Wisconsin - Madison State Street, six blocks, though buses, police cars and taxis are allowed.

The ‘K’ Street Mall in Sacramento; 16th Street Mall, Denver; Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis; Downtown Crossing, Boston and Fremont Street, Las Vegas are more corporate scale, chain-driven pedestrian malls.

Image source: Paul_Henry_