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12 Comments

news

Car Free Day Tomorrow

By Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

2006_9_21carfree.jpg
Walk, bike, or take transit, just leave your car out of it. Tomorrow is Car Free Day. The City has sort of turned around on not doing anything last year and this year a chunk of Yonge Street (Dundas to Shuter, around Dundas Sq.) will be car free for a couple of hours.
But everyone knows that the day wouldn’t be complete without the fine folks at Streets are For People doing something. This year it’s a day-long parking meter picnic across the city, culminating in a march down Queen Street. The meetup point is Trinity Bellwoods Park at 4pm, they take to the streets at 5:30

Comments

  • rek

    Peevish rant:
    Why, oh why, are these sorts of festival/protest things always at times when most people are at work?
    It’s like the protests in front of embassies and politician’s homes when the embassy is closed for a holiday or the politician is out of the country. Why does timing vex us so?
    I wonder what might be accomplished if the protester-participants were in business suits and office casual, rather than I-work-part-time hipster uniforms and I-don’t-work-at-all street grunge.
    End rant.

  • Gary

    Good point Rek. And why do the design of these flyers always look like the designer was on mushrooms at the time?
    Might something be gained from NOT looking like a Grateful Dead concert? Are hippies willing to maybe kinda sorta not look like hippies in order to achieve a worthy goal? What price dreadlocks and psychedelic flyers? Instead of 500 people taking to the streets could there be 5000?
    Or is this more about tribal identity than actually getting people to ride bikes more often?

  • http://pukegreen.com Gary S.

    I agree. I’m unusually interested in environmental issues, but even I get put off by some of the associations that come with that. Not to criticise those who are making an effort, but we should consider whether street protests (festivals, whatever) that close busy roads at peak hours do more harm than good. The average commuter might get annoyed at the intrusion and easily write off supporters of non-car transportation as “wacko hippies” with nothing to do with them.
    Many such events seem to work on the assumption that any attention is good attention. But I don’t think it is. We need practical solutions that let everyday people who wouldn’t attend this event get around without a car. The concept needs to be normalized. Shroom-inspired posters with phrases like “take it to the streets” scare most people and guarantee the car-free culture will stay on the fringe.

  • Michael

    And why do so many rants by Torontoist commenters target the hipster/hippie?
    What’s so funny about peace love and understanding?………..Man?

  • Patrick

    So let me get this straight. There aren’t actually any free cars?

  • http://brokenengine.blogspot.com brokenengine

    A: Hippie Graphic Designers are the only ones that will work for free?

  • http://paigesix.blogspot.com Paige

    Reallly now. Are the people at Trinity Bellwoods (or, simply, the people who know OF Trinity Bellwoods) the ones doing the car-overuse thing?
    How about setting this up in Mississauga or Brampton or Markham? You know.. where the cars actually are en masse???
    (TONIGHT! World Food-Free Dinner for Yom Kippur! Help bring awareness!)

  • pleased

    Post of the day (the year?) wherein Gary summarizes the contribution of this site to humanity:
    “Or is this more about tribal identity than actually getting people to ride bikes more often?”

  • http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick

    “How about setting this up in Mississauga or Brampton or Markham? You know.. where the cars actually are en masse???”
    Because no one wants to address the irony of holding a car-free day that you have to drive to.

  • A

    So is this why traffic was so light this morning?

  • rek

    I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being a hipster (you know, being so completely unique and rebellious you look just like all the other hipsters) or having dreds and facial hair that combine to weigh more than the rest of you, but the way these things are scheduled and organized, that’s the only demographic that’s going to show up in force.
    It’s one thing to ask people not to drive to work (likely doubling their commute time), but to ask them to then leave work 2 hours early to celebrate not driving is another shroom-fuelled notion.
    By bumping some of these events by as little as an hour, they might get people with jobs showing up too.
    And maybe some thought should go into the logic behind making cars idle more and take longer routes home, on Don’t Drive A Car (Because Cars Are Bad) Day.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/photopia/sets/72157594295207748/ HiMY SYeD

    Because you missed it,
    You can Click here to see photos of World Car Free Day in Toronto.
    Enjoy.
    vrmmmmmm…… oops!