Other forms: pedestrianized; pedestrianizing; pedestrianizes
To pedestrianize is to close a street to cars and make it safer and more appealing for walking. After the city pedestrianized Main Street, there was more room for outdoor dining.
When a city or town pedestrianizes an area, it takes a normal street and turns it into a car-free zone or pedestrian mall, a place where you can stroll or travel in a wheelchair without having to look both ways for speeding vehicles. The relatively new word pedestrianize takes pedestrian, from the Latin pes, or "foot," and adds -ize, a suffix that's useful for turning a noun into a verb.