EDG Plans an Alternate Route for Cars in Manhattan Called Loop NYC

A tech-reliant future is often imagined as a sci-fi dystopia. Architecture and engineering firm EDG is looking to change that perception. Its Loop NYC was a 2017 plan that proposed transforming New York roadways into public parks. The brief imagines dedicated micro highways around the perimeter of Manhattan populated with self-driving cars in an electric blue. Above the highways would be pedestrian-accessible outdoor green spaces. “Communities would connect in unexpected ways,” EDG founder John Meyer says, “and the city would be a healthier place.”

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“It would democratize access to efficient transportation and green space.”

This year, it was included in “The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility,” an exhibition at the city’s Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum that explored livable streets and the way people, goods, and services will travel in future urban environments. A video of Loop NYC detailed how going from Midtown to downtown would take just 11 minutes. Ask any New Yorker: That’d be a brave new world.

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