Cars soon will be unwelcome on Playa Vista's main drag. And a lot of people are happy about it

A bicyclist rides last month in the Runway shopping district in Playa Vista. Property manager DJM Capital Partners has decided to permanently close the middle section of Runway to auto traffic.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

On any given day, cars roll slowly down the main shopping street of Playa Vista, just as they do in small towns everywhere.

After all, when it came to building a town center on land around famed aviator Howard Hughes’s old airplane runway, it seemed right to let people drive through and perhaps park to grab a cup of coffee.

But those days are coming to a halt as the center, known as Runway, is being remade as a place where pedestrians will be more inclined to hang out, shop and eat — without having to dodge vehicles.

After seeing the closed-off streets packed with people during farmers markets and other special events, manager DJM Capital Partners Inc. concluded that Runway’s autocentric ethos was outdated and has decided to make the ban full time, even though the center was built only three years ago in the recently developed community.

Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times.