Removal of motor traffic from main streets in city centres was pioneered at the advent of the 2nd half of the 20th century, but it involved commercial streets where conflict with pedestrians was most acute. 21st century time has come for the busy thoroughfares crossing the hearts of cities, which had been particular source of pollution and posed serious spatial barriers. This paper combines four cases of such projects. Three of them based on thoroghfare removal from the circulation network, complete or with a very limited-performance cross road remaining. Such reduction of road capacity may be called a ‘real’ removal. These cases differ from each other: they comprise action addressed to street design only (Brussels, Blvd. Anspach) or complex projects of infilling the new urban structure into the former road strips (Ulm, Neue Straße and Odense, Thrigesgade). The case of Odense is additionally distinguished by the combination with retrofitting a tram line. The forth case is the Trasa WZ (East-West Artery) in Lodz, where the bulk of traffic was relocated subsurface, resulting in partial improvement of public space without reduction of overall road capacity – thus making it the case of ‘mock’ removal. Key conclusions are: 1) removal of an artery may create a reduced car penetration area of diameter as large as 2 km, and 2) leaving the ability for the motor traffic to cross by means of a very low capacity road does not necessarily trigger environmental nuissance and traffic congestion.