Car Free Day Downsized

The city has backed off on somewhat ambitious plans to celebrate International Car Free Day. Instead of closing parts of King and Queen streets between 6:30am to 6:30 pm on Thursday September 22, a plan has been proposed that would see Queen West between Yonge and Spadina closed to cars between 10am and 3pm.

Apparently the city got scared that they'd be inconveniencing rush hour drivers. But isn't that the point? Don't we want to get everyone to think - at least for a day - about environmentally-friendly modes of transport and living a more active lifestyle?

While there might be better ways to promote Car Free Day than shutting down a major street, this compromise plan doesn't seem to achieve much. We already close off parts of Queen and other streets during events like the Toronto Marathon or the Word on the Street, at least before it relocated to Queens Park.