New York City trying car-free experiment in August
"Play. Run. Walk. Breathe." That's the tagline for this summer's biggest no-car experiment in the U.S. For three Saturdays in August (the 9th, 16th, and 23rd) certain streets in New York City will be car-free zones. Actually, it will only be for part of the day on those Saturdays, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., that the nearly 7 miles of roadways selected for the "Summer Streets" event will be repurposed for some emissions-free activities. You can download a PDF of the streets that will be closed to cars - and open to your imagination, as the city says.
The Village Voice says that NYC is taking a page from the Ciclovia festival, a regular event in Bogotá, Columbia, and other similar events from around the world. It's not just that the city is shutting the streets down to make it safer for bike riders. No, this is a full-fledged summer activity program, with dance, fitness, and yoga classes on tap. Transportation Alternatives is one of the groups supporting the city in Summer Streets, and a spokesperson for the group told the Voice that this program will bring people together and will connect "communities who don't have parks to those who do."
One taxi manager's response to the idea: "They've got to be kidding,"
[Source: NYC via the Village Voice]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dad 9:46PM (6/18/2008)
"taking a page from the Ciclovia festival, a regular event in Bogotá, Columbia"
Will the drug dealers be emulating the folks in Bogota?
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Scatter 4:24AM (6/19/2008)
Well it's a start I guess. Shame it's for such a short period, one day a week. Still, at least cities are starting to entertain the concept of carfreeness.
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Jack S. 6:56AM (6/19/2008)
If it's anything like the roving "commercial" block parties that go on in Manhattan I won't hold my breath for anything positive or sincere from the city here.
The commercial events to be found in the city every weekend of the summer block off sections of road and just create congestion (read : more pollution) elsewhere.
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goehring 10:19AM (6/19/2008)
They do this in Rome in between the forum and Coliseum, on Sundays I think, it's nice not having to dodge kamikaze Vespas.
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why not the LS2LS7? 5:46PM (6/19/2008)
Park Avenue is already closed to commercial traffic for much (all?) of that length anyway. So these are probably some of the least disruptive streets to close.
This seems like a "do as little as possible" move to me. Still, it's more than nothing.
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Bill 2:41PM (6/20/2008)
Portland Oregon is having their car free streets event this Sunday named Sunday Parkways, appropriately at the end of the "Toward Carfree Cities" conference which is being held right now.
http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=46103
--Bill
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