Pedestrianizing Broadway!

Bloomberg’s administration has pedestrianized Broadway.  This is a great idea, given how insane that area is on foot.  And, bonus feature, you actually get to see what it looks like:

A large part of the design’s success stems from the altered relationship between the pedestrian and the structures that frame the square. Walking down the cramped, narrow sidewalks, a visitor could never get a feel for the vastness of the place. Now, standing in the middle of Broadway, you have the sense of being in a big public room, the towering billboards and digital screens pressing in on all sides.

I think that, ideally, you’d want to do more, either by connecting the pedestrian segments somehow or by doing this to whole blocks.  Apparently there are critics of this plan?  Is there anyone (besides delivery people) who actually think they were going to get anywhere in Times Sq by driving before it was turned over to the pedestrians?  And do you really need cars for grit?  Much of downtown Barcelona is pedestrian-only, and I can promise you that it is gritty, in spite of its medieval trappings.  Though I’m not sure there was any true grit left in an area that has ESPN Zone and a Toys ‘R’ Us.