In an effort to create a more livable city and combat global warming Seattle’s Mayor, Greg Nickels, announced three additional street closures that will take place on Sunday’s in August and September. This is the latest addition to the City’s Seattle Climate Action Now, “Give Your Car the Summer Off” plan.

In announcing the new closures the Mayor claims;

“Neighbors will have three to six hours to experience our streets in a new way and to see how livable a city can be when people drive less,” Nickels said. “This is our chance to experiment and to evaluate how these events work for people. And we’ll be fighting global warming at the same time.”

The patch work maze of street closures might actually cause more vehicle miles to be driven. A fallacy in the City’s action plan is that cars will simply stay off all other roads as a result of a few closures. Simply by closing streets the Mayor is not changing the need one may have to get from point A to point B. Instead the inconvenient closure will more likely result in forcing the same users to take alternative and probably longer routes.

Prior to the closure, the United States Department of Transportation designated Pennsylvania Avenue as a thoroughfare on the National Highway System. With the closure, traffic progression was diverted to adjacent streets — like “H” and 9th Streets, Northwest - which were already carrying 27,000 vehicles per day. And today, the increase in traffic has left more vehicles sitting in idle, emitting carbon monoxide and other toxins into the air. The District is already a non-compliance zone with the Environmental Protection Agency for ozone. By opening the avenue, we will reduce emissions and air quality will improve.

Before the City adds to their current closure schedule it would be interesting to see the data that supports the claims that less vehicle miles are driven as a result.