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Paris Will Ban Cars for One Day

posted by CoolHand on Monday August 31 2015, @02:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the living-luddite dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Most major cities now have their own versions of open streets events that temporarily transform streets into car-free freeways for the day. Some of these have gotten quite expansive: Each Sunday, Bogóta famously closes about 80 miles of streets. But Paris is hoping to best everyone next month by closing a large, contained portion of its urban core to all cars for a day.

La Journeé sans Voiture will be Sunday, September 27 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, limiting cars from a substantial area that includes much of the city’s center, around landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, and two major parks. (And, yes, of course, certain exceptions will be made for emergencies.)

Paris may be onto something here--NYC can be at its loveliest after a large snowfall stops all traffic. The concept could also be generalized to other frenetic activities in modern civilization, such as "No TV Day" or "Day Without Social Media."

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Monday August 31 2015, @03:33PM

    by zocalo (302) on Monday August 31 2015, @03:33PM (#230229)
    If you are going to ban cars for a day, why not take advantage of that and make a major event out of it? Turn the city centre into a Renaissance Fair type thing, have street performers and so on dress up in period costume (ideally for a pre-specified period in history to provide a theme) and encourage visitors to join in - kind of like the Venice Carnival, Goodwood Revival, and similar events. Make it an annual event and you'd be likely to get all the benefits of the car free day, and potentially create a major tourist event as part of the bargain.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 31 2015, @03:37PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Monday August 31 2015, @03:37PM (#230231) Journal

    I will be shocked if there aren't pop-up street festivals in Paris, on a Sunday, on NO CAR DAY, with at least a month's notice (Sep 27th).

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Monday August 31 2015, @06:26PM

      by zocalo (302) on Monday August 31 2015, @06:26PM (#230342)
      Absolutely, but there are almost always street performers, market carts, and so on in big cities. Closing streets like this is also something many cities do from time to time for carnivals, festivals, and so on, which makes what Paris is doing hardly a novel idea in that respect apart from the scale of the closures providing so much more additional room for the performers and other events to happen in. My point was that there's a bit of difference between closing a bunch of streets to traffic for an event and removing the traffic altogether (which is what I mean by going one better) and that is an opportunity to show the city as it might have looked before cars even came along. Well, maybe aside from the garbage and sewage in the streets...
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 31 2015, @03:44PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday August 31 2015, @03:44PM (#230233)

    A major tourist event, for the people who are inside Paris.
    Nobody living outside will be dumb enough to try to get in, when all the people who HAVE to get in to work on a Sunday will be fighting to make it to work. You thought Parisians were rude before...

    • (Score: 1) by DeathElk on Monday August 31 2015, @11:22PM

      by DeathElk (4834) on Monday August 31 2015, @11:22PM (#230512)

      Greater Paris has an excellent public transport network. No dramas getting into the city, even with hordes of other people.

      You thought Parisians were rude before...

      No, I think opinionated Americans are rude.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 31 2015, @11:52PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Monday August 31 2015, @11:52PM (#230532)

        Y'en a qui causent sans savoir...

  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday August 31 2015, @05:23PM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Monday August 31 2015, @05:23PM (#230292) Homepage

    Ban the cars, leave everything else as it is, and you'll be able to get much data on how much banning cars, by itself, improves things for people. London has just had the Notting Hill Carnival; no doubt cars would have been kept out of a wide area for it. But looking at that day won't tell you anything about how a reduction in cars would improve things for the residents and visitors over a longer period. Noise pollution certainly won't be any lower.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @06:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @06:50PM (#230361)

    October 10 - Orange County, California [ocregister.com]

    "Re:Imagine Garden Grove by Day and by Night".
    [...]
    there is a planned one-mile stretch of streets dedicated to re-imaging Garden Grove without cars.

    “This year’s event will once again showcase the community as a lively, bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly civic center,” said Mayor Bao Nguyen. “It’s a true celebration of our city’s cultural diversity, strengths, and future.”
    [...]
    from about 3 to 6 p.m., the event will be similar to last year’s: there will be workshops, action sports, live music, interactive games, and an open house by the Garden Grove fire and police departments.

    Historic Main Street, Acacia Parkway between Nelson and Seventh streets, Civic Center Park, and the Pacific Electric Right-of-Way will be the hub.

    Once the sun goes down, the event will become a block party, with a Mardi Gras-like parade, live music, and DJs.

    .
    More like Paris:
    Swedish capital to go car free in September [thelocal.se]

    Cars will be banned from Stockholm city centre for the first time on September 19th as the Swedish capital takes part in a Europe-wide initiative to encourage greener travel.
    [...]
    the Swedish capital will join at least five other towns and cities taking part in the project. Piteå and Lycksele in northern Sweden, Täby in central Sweden and Älmhult and Varberg in the south have also signed up to go car free for a day in the autumn, with other municipalities also organizing green initiatives during the campaign week.

    All roads will be closed in Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town), which is already partly pedestrianized, as well as many of the busy shopping streets around the central station, and several of the city's major bridges.
    [...]
    Last month a global index looking at cycling in urban environments named Malmö in southern Sweden the sixth most bike-friendly city in the world [thelocal.se] while criticizing Stockholm and Gothenburg for not pushing themselves far enough in terms of innovation or political will.

    The 20 Most Bike-Friendly Cities in the World (with a weird graphic) [alternet.org]

    -- gewg_

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:52AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:52AM (#230598)

      If they want old europe back, they need to legalize man+girl marraige.