Flickr user Valerio_B

Breathe in that fresh...Times Square air? According to the most recent New York City Community Air Survey (below), those Times Square pedestrian plazas are doing their job. The report shows, "After the conversion to a pedestrian plaza, NO pollution levels in Times Square went down by 63 percent while, NO2 levels went down by 41 percent." Just maybe don't hang out in all those places around the pedestrian plazas...where the diverted cars are.

Mayor Bloomberg said, “We created pedestrian plazas right in the heart of our City to straighten out some of the chokepoints in our street grid and to help traffic flow more smoothly and quickly through Midtown. We also expected that by reducing the numbers of vehicles in and around Times Square, we would also improve the area’s air quality, and that’s exactly what the numbers now show." The numbers also show that 25 percent of the city's taxi fleet were hybrids as of April 2010 and a decreasing concentration average of particulate matter in the air since 2000.

Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said, “New York City’s overall air quality has improved in recent decades, but levels of pollutants are still too high." Taking pollution down to zero? There's a Captain Planet for that.