Car-Free Day

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-09-22 03:54pm

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2003-09-22 04:05pm

Well, at the very least it should be a bit quieter...

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-09-22 04:44pm

LONG LIVE THE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM!

It's a good ideia, the cities are getting more and more crowed, with the attending polution problems.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-09-22 04:50pm

It's a good idea only if you have the alternate transportation infrastructure to handle it (including parking lots for incoming suburbanites). Otherwise, you're fucking the people who conduct business downtown so people who don't depend on vehicles for their livelihoods can feel good about themselves.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-09-22 04:56pm

I don't think it will fly in most American cities. Considering most Americans drive from the garage to the mailbox to get the mail, I don't think some celebration will pry them from their cars.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-09-22 04:58pm

What a dumb idea. I'd been plowing through those crowds in mah '91 T-Bird like a bat outta Hell to get to my pipin' hot Telway Burgers that afternoon.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-09-22 04:58pm

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:I don't think it will fly in most American cities. Considering most Americans drive from the garage to the mailbox to get the mail, I don't think some celebration will pry them from their cars.

The problem is that most American cities's mass transit sustem's suck ass. They're not designed for it and the actual system is just a token effort.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-09-22 05:31pm

It's a stupid idea, and as the article points out is harming all the businesses in the area. Even if people can still get in and around the city, a truck laden with products can't and it's not too practical to cart stuff several blocks though the streets.

greenmm · Post by **greenmm** » 2003-09-22 05:42pm

RedImperator wrote:It's a good idea only if you have the alternate transportation infrastructure to handle it (including parking lots for incoming suburbanites). Otherwise, you're fucking the people who conduct business downtown so people who don't depend on vehicles for their livelihoods can feel good about themselves.

Well said. Not every country can be like European ones, with affordable, dependable, and convenient mass transit systems.

Oh, and it would have been just lovely for me to try to travel from 1 suburb (where I live) to another suburb (where I currently work) in a county where, unless you're trying to go downtown or along a few main streets that meet in the downtown of the central city, there's no mass transit available, and I'm lucky if I can get to work in 25 minutes on the freeway, and there are no convenient bikepaths to get to work (assuming I wanted to show up to work after biking for over 1 hour -- real fun when there are no showers at work).

And don't get me started about the traffic spillover when they close down parts of downtown for special events -- and of course, the choice areas along the riverfront that need to be closed down are some of the main roads people use to get to the main artery streets or the freeway in the downtown area. Only an inconvenience for downtown area drivers? Only if you define "downtown" as 10-20 miles away...

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-22 07:47pm

As a once a year street fair, I think it is a great idea. Most cities have festivel once a year. It is good for business, relaxing, grabbing some cotton candy, or a glass of wine.

As a permanent solution, it is quite stupid. Downtown business will lose customers. It is hard to convince someone that wants to shop to take mass transit to do so. Not when they can drive to a mall where parking is free, in downtown it is often not.