If you were driving around New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles or a host of other U.S. cities today you might have noticed parking spots transformed into mini-parks.

The green-zones were created as part of an annual one-day international celebration called (Park)ing Day that promotes the idea that streets are meant for people and community and not just cars.

Started in San Francisco in 2005, the event has grown to over 700 parks in 140 cities in 21 countries.

In New York, about 50 parking spots across the five boroughs were repurposed for the event organized by transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

People got creative with their space and had everything from art installations, to kiddie pools and hammocks.

“The idea is to make people aware of streets as public spaces, said Ethan Kent, Vice President of Project For Public Spaces, an international non profit dedicated to creating public spaces that build stronger communities. The group has been involved with Park(ing Day) for about four years, and organized a ‘Saved By The Bell’ theme on their spot at Great Jones St.

“The first couple of years we got a lot of angry comments from people who wanted to park — but there’s been a lot of encouragement this year, Kent said. “Awareness has gone up and the city itself is doing more with its new public plazas, bike lanes, etc.”

The spots were all set up by 8.30 am and by 5 pm most of them had already been cleared out.

Ashlee Christian, 25, a photographer who happened to be outside the NYU Wagner Transportation Association parking spot on 6th Ave, said that she really liked the idea but wasn’t sure how productive it would be.

Christian added that if the parking spots were all on one busy street, or were reclaimed for more than one day, it may have made a bigger impact.

Whether it had the universal impact it was meant to or not, it’s still really nice to see this many people coming together and promoting the idea of community. It makes it obvious that not everyone wants a world full of automobiles. We just wish they did this every week!

In case you missed it, here’s some Park(ing) Day pictures from around the web to keep you clued in.