Living Car Free - Car Free Day in Denver

A local councilwoman in Denver has proposed occasional Car Free days in downtown Denver, modeled after similar launches in New York (one neighborhood) and Bogota.

Living a car-lite lifestyle, and biking for almost all my local transportation and work commute I should be loving this. But I'm not. Denver and its downtown and immediate neighborhoods are already bike and pedestrian friendly. Autos, peds, bikes, all share space downtown just fine. We have an incredible pedestrian mall that anchors the city where you can access all points in downtown on well maintained wide sidewalks. I don't see how completely banning cars would vastly improve the downtown experience, however it would prohibit families from outlying areas, or tourists, from visiting downtown. (Those that wouldn't take transit anyway) In addition, the transit accessibility from far outlying areas to the north and east are non-existent on weekends.

I SUPPORT incentives for those who choose biking over autos, but this idea seems like a solution in search of a problem. It seems a bit too intrusive and overreaching, especially when the day she wants to implement this on, Sunday, is extremely car lite anyway.

Please check out my letter (http://www.futuregringo.com/index.php/2008/09/13/car-free-day-in-denver/) and I'd love to hear opinions, agree or disagree. I wouldn't normally say this, but "Share the Road" means cars too. In this case my libertarian side says this program is unnecessary, intrusive, and will do more harm than good.

Here's my opinion (http://www.futuregringo.com/index.php/2008/09/13/car-free-day-in-denver/), based on the original article. (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/11/one-day-car-ban-eyed-for-downtown/)

And also a local editorial (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/sep/12/carroll-car-free-a-gimmick/).

The program is in the early stages of development. Why not bring up these concerns rather than just saying no. I am sure the people planning this have thought about how this will affect transit, how people who are driving into Denver will park, etc.

Did you see the pictures from Portlands first attempt? The street was overflowing.

I think the main benefit is breathing some cleaner air, while at the same time interacting with more people while walking/biking. Usually people get in their car, drive to parking, walk across street to where they are going, walk back to car, drive home. Very little interaction.

Well it would be very nice to be able to walk through downtown in a tranquil environment. No engine noise, no tire noise, no ricer fart can noise, no redneck open exhaust diesel noise. I say this is a good step in the right direction.

Interesting that she picked Sunday,as it is the only day you can
legally ride your bike on the 16th Street Mall.

Why not make some roads which lead into the mall car free?
or physically separated by temp barriers lanes for peds and cyclist. With humans doing traffic control.

The Cherry Creek bike path pretty much has that covered.

We had a couple of these recently in Seattle. Two on roads that are mostly for scenery and always full of bikes anyway, and one on a busy major street, but where poor people live. All of them on Sunday, when bus service is much more limited. I'm sure the mayor made an appearance at all three, having been driven there in his chauffeured towncar, which sat idling while waiting for him.