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

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: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 31 2015, @03:48PM

    This should make for all kinds of fun when none of the delivery vans are allowed to run in the city.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:05PM (#230241)

    Sure … because there's no way the delivery vans could deliver one day earlier or one day later. </sarcasm>

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 31 2015, @04:05PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 31 2015, @04:05PM (#230242)

    They comically define "one day" as seven hours in the afternoon and "day" as a weekend day. Not exactly monday morning rush hour.

    Locally we have a nearby hippie car street to walkway conversion that is only alive because of student bars. They allow truck traffic after bar time till breakfast time or so and lots of trucks part right outside the banned area, so Paris will be OK.

    There are obvious scaling problems. In a hippie city we have enough students to keep ONE road to sidewalk conversion running... But you can't turn the whole city into that, all the time, there just isn't enough demand. It actively repels all businesses other than student bars and dive bars so good luck with that.

  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 31 2015, @04:38PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday August 31 2015, @04:38PM (#230258) Journal

    From the article:
    "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."
    Does not mention commercial vehicles. Besides, if planned properly and well in advance, I can see this working out. It's also a Sunday. Not too many deliveries on Sunday. I go for a walk around Manhattan on Sundays and there aren't many trucks around. Plus, large deliveries, like a semi trailer for Dwayne Reade, are done at night. And just about all commercial trash collection is done at night. During the day the majority of trucks are smaller deliveries, parcels and construction (dump/mixer/block/etc).

    • (Score: 2) by soylentsandor on Monday August 31 2015, @05:10PM

      by soylentsandor (309) on Monday August 31 2015, @05:10PM (#230280)

      Something must have gotten lost in translation. At metronews.fr [metronews.fr] they say: les zones qui seront fermées à la circulation.

      Meaning the zones will be forbidden for traffic. IMO, that would mean commercial traffic will not be permitted either. Other publications speak of la circulation as well.

      • (Score: 2) by soylentsandor on Monday August 31 2015, @05:16PM

        by soylentsandor (309) on Monday August 31 2015, @05:16PM (#230286)

        Never mind. Turns out user Xav found out [soylentnews.org] public transports, taxis, delivery vans and even residents' cars are allowed in the area.

  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:30AM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @07:30AM (#230687) Homepage

    Zout alors! La boulangerie n'avez-pas le pain!

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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:03PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:03PM (#230777) Journal

    Many European cities have had pedestrian zones for a long time. The way the shops resupply is vans come in at night when the pedestrian zone is closed/empty. It seems to work well enough.

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