Philadelphia’s Open Streets report reveals massive benefits carless events have for Center City businesses

Open Streets’ cred is on the rise. 

Philadelphia’s Open Streets program – when the Center City District closes city thoroughfares to vehicular traffic in favor of family-friendly foot traffic – has proven to be wildly successful. 

CCD’s March 10 report, which details the impacts of the Open Streets: West Walnut program on the surrounding community in 2024-2025, found that events averaged 10,000 visitors a day, with a 27% increase in pedestrian activity compared to average Sundays, a 38% average increase in sales for participating businesses and a 26% increase in in-store foot traffic on Open Street Sundays. 

“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 in a statement. “The question this report leaves open is not whether Open Streets works. It’s how far we can take it.” 

The report also tallied 170,000 visitors throughout the program, an 18% increase in foot traffic across the broader Rittenhouse Square area, and a massive 62% increase in business foot traffic compared to non-Open Streets Sundays in the city. 

CCD, which focuses on maintaining and promoting Center City Philadelphia, launched its Open Streets initiative in September 2024, closing the street to vehicles along Walnut and 18th streets near the city’s Rittenhouse Square. With vehicular traffic banned for the duration of the event, restaurants and retailers were able to expand outdoor dining and host pop-up vendors on the sidewalks.

Now, with Open Streets expansion talks ongoing in Philadelphia, the program has proven successful and popular enough that key figures are exploring how to make permanent road closures a reality.

Previous survey data were also promising. Reports from 2024 found that nearly 90% of businesses reported an increase in foot traffic to their storefronts, with some reporting as much as 300% more than on an average Sunday.

And last year, preliminary data from the spring season showed that average pedestrian volumes were up 20% compared to Sundays in April 2024, while overall visitation to the larger Rittenhouse Row corridor was 8% higher than the same timeframe the year prior.