All signs point to Seattle’s pilot program limiting car access to Pike Place being a success: sales were up 6.5% in 2025 compared to 2024, and the number of local visitors jumped by 5.6%. As the City considers permanent changes, a pedestrianized Pike Place still has its detractors.
“still has its detractors” have any of those people actually driven through Pike Place? We accidentally did once and it turned a 10 minute trip into nearly an hour. Why anyone would even want to drive through there is beyond me
It is so cringe we ever let cars in the market:
Sales at retail stores within the Market rose 9.2%, with restaurants seeing a 10.2% boost between May and September, the busiest season at Seattle’s most popular public market. The number of visitors who live within 30 miles of the Market increased by 5.6% from one year to the next, a figure that translates to an additional 127,000 Puget Sound residents dropping by Pike Place at some point in 2025.
It’s such obviously bad logic if you flip it on its head. E.g. “Let’s add car infrastructure to areas normally exclusive to foot traffic! School campuses, parks, beaches, shopping mall interiors, and hospitals! Oh no, people are using them less?”
The darkly hilarious part of this is that I tried really hard to come up with comedic examples, but I’m willing to bet someone has seen it happen in real life for more than one of these.
Seems like a no brainer
