I lived in Seoul for 3 years. 청계천 is one of the happiest places of my memory.

“Initially, everyone thought it would cause gridlock,” said Park Byung-chul, a local resident. “But people adapted. Now we can’t imagine the highway ever being here.”

No shit. Who would have thought that giving space back to people, making their city more walkable, and removing cars would have such a positive effect?

It’s only been done countless times, and those places better for it.

Meanwhile… other places have doubled-down on making their cities unbearable because they only cater to drivers who complain about the traffic they are causing.

I’ve been there on vacation. It’s a really nice place at the heart of the city.

Great work, Seoul! Keep taking space back for people. We need it to live, cars don’t need it.

If my city (not a big one) could reclaim one of the four lanes we have going through our dying downtown, it would be a Herculean effort to even do that much.