Car-free Sundays?!? (Seattle: cost of, yard, money)

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Urban Hiker

Thanks for this link. I wasn't aware of that.


-------------------------

I'm really surprised by all of the negative comments. It's only for a few hours and I love the idea of being able to walk down a road without worrying about cars not seeing me.

As far as drivers having to go a little out of their way, well, I have to do that all of the time as a walker. Have you seen all of the construction and closed sidewalks? I have to criss-cross a lot of streets just to get a mile down the road. However, I take it in stride.

We also aren't the first to do this. It has been a tremendously popular idea in and outside of the US.

Here's a couple of examples:
Streetfilms » Portland’s Sunday Parkways

Streetfilms » Ciclovia: Bogotá, Colombia

Enjoy.

If those few hours coincided when you had to drive to/from work, you probably wouldn't be too happy about it. Portland, Oregon is in the United States. Bogota, Columbia?

[Urban Hiker]

Originally Posted by Katiana

If those few hours coincided when you had to drive to/from work, you probably wouldn't be too happy about it. Portland, Oregon is in the United States. Bogota, Columbia?

One: I wrote in and outside of the US. Why the question mark for Bogota, Columbia?

Two: I've had to detour around plenty of impediments when traveling to work by car. There's tons of road construction, street fairs, and parades shutting down streets all the time.

Now I walk anyway, which is why I brought up the closed sidewalks.

Seriously, I'm disturbed by all of the whining. People are truly addicted to their vehicles.

[tada]

Originally Posted by Urban Hiker

Seriously, I'm disturbed by all of the whining. People are truly addicted to their vehicles.

I'm only addicted to mine because the public transport here sucks. If I lived in a place with decent to excellent public transport (say, Tokyo ), I probably wouldn't even own a car.

[Urban Hiker]

Originally Posted by tada

I'm only addicted to mine because the public transport here sucks. If I lived in a place with decent to excellent public transport (say, Tokyo ), I probably wouldn't even own a car.

I hear you on the public transport.

I just don't understand why people aren't looking to the positives of these events. The links I posted earlier make me hope that this is a great success to be expanded upon. It looks like a beautiful thing, yet people are posting as if they don't even want to give it a chance.

BTW - I live in Seattle, don't have a car and seem to manage just fine. Then again, walking happens to be one of my favorite activities.

[Ira500]

On Sundays, there is dramatically reduced public transit...Wouldn't it make sense to add special extra transit service to enhance these car free Sundays?

[Katiana]

One: I wrote in and outside of the US. Why the question mark for Bogota, Columbia?

Two: I've had to detour around plenty of impediments when traveling to work by car. There's tons of road construction, street fairs, and parades shutting down streets all the time.

Now I walk anyway, which is why I brought up the closed sidewalks.

Seriously, I'm disturbed by all of the whining. People are truly addicted to their vehicles.

OK, I missed the inside and outside the US when I read your first post. I think Bogota, Columbia is not similar enough to the US to make a comparison. What is the car ownership rate there, etc.

There are not usually road closures for street fairs and parades M-F, when most people work. I am concerned about people who work on Sunday.

It's not really whining. Cars are a safety issue for women who have to work or drive home from work at night.

[Urban Hiker]

Originally Posted by Katiana

OK, I missed the inside and outside the US when I read your first post. I think Bogota, Columbia is not similar enough to the US to make a comparison. What is the car ownership rate there, etc.

There are not usually road closures for street fairs and parades M-F, when most people work. I am concerned about people who work on Sunday.

It's not really whining. Cars are a safety issue for women who have to work or drive home from work at night.

Bogota is not that similar, to Seattle at least, when it comes to transportation. They're light years ahead of us. However, cars are still a major contributor to their congestion. Bogotá - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The hours of the car free Sundays are from noon to six in two places and three to six on Rainier Ave S.

The Rainier and Capitol Hill ones look tiny and the city is keeping a lane open to local traffic and the water taxi shuttle on Alki.

[Jennibc]

Ok, Seattle had it's first car free Sunday yesterday. I couldn't find anything in the PI this morning but was able to find an article in Times. Local News | Weather puts damper on car-free Sunday | Seattle Times Newspaper
Sound like it was a huge success And before people start beating up on me and saying " well, if the weather had been better it would have turned out differently" consider where we live and how we cannot ever really count on the weather so it might be absurd to expect something like this to work here. The article also states that closures are costing the city $45,000. That's not big money in the whole scheme of things but that could pay for a few traffic circles somewhere.

[tada]

$45,000 a week when most Sundays out of the year are like this one seems like a colossal waste of money to me.

P.S. I love the term "Nanny City" that this article uses.

[bigtrees]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

The article also states that closures are costing the city $45,000. That's not big money in the whole scheme of things but that could pay for a few traffic circles somewhere.

Trees (seedlings) between $0.25 and $0.75 a piece when purchased in large quantites. So that money could have bought anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 trees!

After reading all the articles in the Seattle Times and Seattle PI about how important trees are in Seattle, and after reading that the mayor wants to add 600,000 trees to landscape in Seattle, why don't they spend that money on seedlings?

$45,000 times four weekends would purchase the majority of trees that Seattle needs to meet the mayors goal of increasing the foliage here.

By the way, I put in for a government grant to plant 1,000 trees on some property a little east of Auburn. Primarily Douglas-fir and Western Red Cedar. Should be a nice improvement if I get the grant money.