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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: 5, Insightful) by gnuman on Monday August 31 2015, @03:19PM

    by gnuman (5013) on Monday August 31 2015, @03:19PM (#230217)

    Cars are a blight. Vast majority of city space is wasted on cars - roads and parking spots. I grew up in a place where a car going down the street was an "event" for us kids, only 1 or 2 a day. It was awesome! Today, in this car-centric culture in America, my neighbors never even walk across their own yard to get to the mail box at end of their driveway. They drive there instead. Insanity.

    Car free day for Paris should wake up many of its inhabitants to the racket these machines make.

  • (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!
    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 31 2015, @03:37PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> 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.

  • (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.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (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!

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    • (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.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:26PM (#230250)

    Frantic activity is against the spirit of the venture. Perhaps you meant ascetic.

  • (Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Monday August 31 2015, @04:34PM

    by Kromagv0 (1825) on Monday August 31 2015, @04:34PM (#230255) Homepage

    With this now who is going to honk at garbage trucks?
     
    My experience from living there seemed to be that this was the preferred French motoring past time in Paris. Garbage truck is out collecting trash everyone behind it just honks incessantly.

    --
    T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 31 2015, @06:10PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Monday August 31 2015, @06:10PM (#230324)

      It's a shitty, tiring, but necessary job, so the locals are cheering the heroic guys who do it.
      ...No?

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:05PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @01:05PM (#230779) Journal

        Department of Sanitation jobs are coveted in New York. Good pay, great benefits. I know a NYC garbage man who owns a big beach house on the north shore of Long Island. He loves his job, and is always finding antiques and other interesting stuff that other people throw out.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday September 08 2015, @01:45PM

          by Kromagv0 (1825) on Tuesday September 08 2015, @01:45PM (#233766) Homepage

          My uncle works as a garbage man here in the Twin Cities and he pulls all sorts of stuff out of the trash that is worth salvaging. He probably makes a few thousand dollars extra a year from just the recyclables he pulls out of people's trash. The jobs usually pay fairly well and are a very necessary one.

          --
          T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
    • (Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday August 31 2015, @06:11PM

      by fritsd (4586) on Monday August 31 2015, @06:11PM (#230325) Journal

      Here at the fringe of the EU, we wave at the garbage truck guy when he picks up our trash; to show him our appreciation for his important & smelly work.

      Surely, les parisiens toot their horns to show their appreciation of waste disposal work in a .. slightly more loud way :-) right?

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by xav on Monday August 31 2015, @04:35PM

    by xav (5579) on Monday August 31 2015, @04:35PM (#230256)

    ... none of the delivery vans are allowed to run in the city

    Wrong, public transports, taxis, delivery vans and even residents' cars are allowed in the area. Source: http://www.paris.fr/actualites/le-27-septembre-journee-sans-voitures-2817#derogations-et-limitation-de-vitesse_3 [paris.fr]

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

    by iWantToKeepAnon (686) on Monday August 31 2015, @10:10PM (#230483) Homepage Journal

    "Day Without Social Media."

    "as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced" ... and good riddance!

    --
    "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • (Score: 1) by Pete (big-pete) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @12:40PM

    by Pete (big-pete) (1612) on Tuesday September 01 2015, @12:40PM (#230768)

    Brussels has been doing this for years...it's usually a weekend when I'm overseeing major system interventions, and I get a special exemption pass from the city - it's a very strange day to be driving your car through the city.

    This year it is on 20th September in Brussels. [brussels.be]

    -- Pete.