Open Streets: Reimagining Streets for People in Philadelphia

Open Streets has drawn more than 170,000 visitors and delivered measurable benefits.

CCD released Open Streets: Reimagining Streets for People in Philadelphia, a comprehensive report documenting the outcomes and future vision of the Open Streets: West Walnut program.

Same Street, New Story

Picture Rittenhouse Row on a typical Sunday morning. People fill the sidewalks, browse Anthropologie, Philadelphia Runner, or the Apple Store, people-watch over brunch at one of Parc’s coveted sidewalk tables facing Rittenhouse Square. Yet, despite the retail activity and sidewalk animation, two-thirds of the space between buildings is allocated to vehicular storage and movement rather than the foot traffic that is generating commercial revenue.

Now, picture the same street on any Open Streets Sunday. Thousands of people are strolling, sitting, eating, playing, and discovering a version of their city that the street, on any other day, makes structurally impossible. Toddlers, initially cautious about crossing the curb line, chase giant bubbles through the middle of an intersection. Couples, families, and friends linger over brunch on tables that spill up and down 18th Street. Dogs make friends. Suburbanites make a day of it. And, critically, retail sales and foot traffic are up significantly. Nothing about the street has been rebuilt or redesigned. The space has simply been reallocated, temporarily privileging people and place over throughput.

Streets consume an extraordinary share of urban land, and for most of the last century, cities have operated under a single, largely unexamined assumption about what they are for. Moving cars through has been the default. Everything else – walking, sitting, playing, gathering – must negotiate for whatever is left over. Open Streets questioned that assumption, temporarily, and revealed what becomes possible when a city’s default operating code gets rewritten in favor of people and place.

“The results have been good for Center City, good for the retailers and restaurants of Rittenhouse Row, and good for Philadelphia, adding a chapter to the story of a downtown that is resilient, inventive, evolving, improving, and ambitious,” CCD President & CEO Prema Katari Gupta said. 

Key Findings from the 2024–2025 Season:

• 10,000 average visitors per event
• 27% increase in pedestrian activity compared to prior-year Sundays
• 38% average increase in sales for participating businesses
• 26% increase in in-store foot traffic on Open Streets days

To learn more, read or download the Open Streets: Reimagining Streets for People in Philadelphia report below.