I spend a lot of time in downtown Edmonton. I love this city, and want to see it become the best it can be. An area of particular interest to me is the 4th Street Promenade (https://maps.app.goo.gl/XSaMJVaAwqtZafwv5) It has a myriad of trendy restaurants and charming early 1900s facades. However, the current walking experience is greatly hindered by awful infrastructure.

In the middle of what is supposed to be a shopping street, there is a busy, noisy road with a noticeable lack of crosswalks (three for the whole block!). The wideness of the road and lack of speed bumps allow cars to go faster than necessary, in turn causing them to disregard pedestrians. Even when traffic is at a standstill, copious amounts of street parking both obscure drivers' view of anyone who might want to cross and force pedestrians to have to step out far onto the road to find an opening.

It is an aggravating experience seeing a restaurant across the street and, unable to find an opening to cross the busy road, having to walk half the perimeter of the block to get to it. It’s the antithesis of good design for a shopping street, and actively hinders business for the restaurants located there. It makes the street less safe, less appealing, and less distinct. The promenade may get better if we removed the on-street parking and added a couple more crosswalks. But even then, the experience would be severely hindered by the prioritization of cars. I believe the best course of action for the 4th street promenade is full pedestrianization.

I’m not alone in thinking this. Paths for People, a local advocacy group, have mentioned it in their pedestrianization plan:  https://www.bildedmonton.com/wp-content/uploads/DowntownPedestrianizationPlan.pdf

This issue even made its way into a news article in 2023, with the current mayor (then a city councillor) Andrew Knack expressing interest in it. https://globalnews.ca/news/7747345/104-street-edmonton-pedestrian-promenade/

All that is needed to keep the cars out is a few orange construction bollards. If the city wants to get fancy, they could throw in some picnic tables, string lights, and a bit of paint on the asphalt to liven up the empty space. It would greatly improve both atmosphere and walkability for the time being. Starting with a barebones approach lowers the bar to entry and is a great way to gauge citizen interest. Eventually, if the simple closure is a success, permanent fixtures can be installed one at a time. This is affordable and takes into account citizens interests while still making radical change. It’s more than doable, it’s desirable. We already implement something similar every Saturday in the summer for the downtown farmers market, which the city displays on their advertisements of the area: https://exploreedmonton.com/attractions-and-experiences/4th-street-promenade If this is possible in the summer with minimal effects to traffic and local residents, and produces such a wonderful turnout, why not try to make it a year round thing! 

I  want to see the 4th street promenade become a vibrant space in which people and businesses can flourish. That starts with solid urban infrastructure. It has immense potential as a hub for community and connection, potential which is currently being sidelined by the prioritization of vehicles over human scale design. Pedestrianizing this street would demonstrate the city's commitment to reducing car dependency, and to building a better city for all Edmontonians.