Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Car-Free Day- A Possibility In Spokane?

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has just announced plans for a temporary Saturday-only seven mile car-free route through the centre of Manhattan this summer, under the name 'Summer Streets.'

For three Saturdays in August, a route linking Brooklyn Bridge in the south and the Upper East Side and Central Park in the north will be cleared of all traffic to be freed for use by cyclists and walkers.

Here's the details.

Do you think a 'car free' day would fly in Spokane?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd be a strong supporter of this idea, but is it feasible? Well possibly, especially if the efforts were focused in the downtown core. We already do this somewhat with the activities around Hoopfest and Bloomsday, so expanding upon this could be a good start.

EvilElf said...

I could see there being a farmers market, entertainment and bike activities! It would be great.

Have free bus service that day too. g

Give people a taste of not using their cars to get around and they will see all the advantages. Not too mention that this event would draw a lot of folks downtown to shop.

SRTC Staff said...

The suggestion of adding a farmers market and entertainment kind of reminds me of the event the City put on a couple years ago on Father's Day weekend where people were invited downtown to tour all the new lofts and businesses, etc. I think it was called the 'Downtown Spokane Lifestyle Tour' or something, but it offered music, art galleries, a trolley to get around to all the different events, food, etc. I really enjoyed the event and was disapointed not to see it return this year.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.