New York City is at a transportation crossroads. After many delays, the city is finally poised to implement some form of congestion pricing, promising dual benefits: funding public transit — the lifeblood of the city — and reducing congestion in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. However, one critical consequence has been largely overlooked: how will commuting patterns change outside this zone? The reduction of traffic within the zone presents an opportunity to rethink the streets just outside of it. Currently, some of the most congested streets during rush hour are near the four untolled East River bridges. Traffic in these neighborhoods is caused largely by drivers heading to Manhattan, from districts poorly served by public transit (“transit deserts”). To avoid paying for parking in Manhattan, many of these drivers look for free on-street parking near subway stations in Brooklyn and Queens, completing the final mile to Manhattan by train. With new fees on the bridges, even more drivers may seek free parking outside of the paid zone.  If left unaddressed, congestion may well increase in these “near the zone” areas. The MTA’s congestion pricing scheme is focused on transit. The City Council must now look at its impact on the public realm in near-by neighborhoods. Tools like residential parking permits, widely used in North American cities, could help manage parking in these areas. According to parking researcher Donald Shoup, cruising for parking significantly contributes to traffic congestion. But permits won’t address transit challenges in transit deserts. A fuller vision includes better transit service in underserved areas. New transit centers at express subway stations, far from downtown, could include parking, neighborhood-circulating buses, spaces for taxis and rideshares (Uber and Lyft), and bike and Citi Bike parking, all within a quality mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly public realm. These satellite hubs would offer a seamless transit experience and provide far more accessible transit options to the currently underserved. Additionally, nearby land would become far more desirable for residential development. The next chapter in the evolution of urban transportation in cities has arrived. In the history of cities, the reign of the private automobile is but a blip. Now is the time to transform the 200-year-old urban street infrastructure into greener, safer and more publicly accessible spaces. A bold rethinking of the city’s public streets would repurpose the rights-of-way for pedestrian-friendly public use, landscaping, and flood control by absorbing more stormwater or channeling it directly to the open waterways. Streets transformed into actual public rights-of-way can stitch communities together, rather than separate them. A vision for Brooklyn’s Fourth Ave. may serve as an example. The avenue is currently packed with traffic as drivers head to free bridges, or search for free parking near the Atlantic/Pacific subway hub. However, with congestion pricing disincentives, permit-parking on nearby streets, and incentives to use remote transit centers for a higher quality, less expensive, more predictable and quicker commute, we can reasonably expect far less traffic on Fourth Ave. This creates the opportunity to fully reimagine the avenue as a truly pedestrian-prioritized public space.  Following the High Line, the Low Line, and our proposal in these pages 10 years ago for transforming Manhattan’s Broadway into the Green Line, now being implemented, we are proposing to transform Brooklyn’s Fourth Ave. into the Fourth Line. At 120 feet wide, Fourth Ave. is among the broadest streets in Brooklyn. Planned in 1866, well before the advent of motorized vehicles, as a grand boulevard connecting Downtown Brooklyn with Bay Ridge, it never fulfilled this promise. But now, with the infrastructure changes outlined above, we would no longer need a massive traffic conduit that ends abruptly at Flatbush and Atlantic Aves. — certainly one of the city’s most dysfunctional, dangerous, and pedestrian-unfriendly intersections. We envision transforming Fourth Ave. into a park, reserving just enough through-put for bus-rapid-transit or streetcars, emergency vehicles, and bicycles. The rest of the space would be dedicated to public use: walking and sitting areas, playgrounds, dog runs, and lush landscaping. Our model for this street is Las Ramblas, not Daytona. We are fully aware that transforming one of the city’s most congested arterials into a park-like environment requires some leap of faith. But when the options are to either ignore the momentous transportation changes underway and let our communities suffer the consequences, or to recognize the forces at work and harness them to plan more sustainable, equitable, and livable communities, the choice is clear. Cohn is a transportation architect and urban designer in Brooklyn.