Local shopping street in the city of Montréal, It’s the beginning of the summer here, and more and more streets are being closed to cars every summer (although they’re reopened during the cold Canadian winters), the difference in the amount of people there now vs last week when it was still open to cars is absurd.
Since It’s the beginning of the summer there was a marching band to celebrate, which was nice.
Businesses set up stands where they sold stuff, offered free samples and stuff like that, and there was also seating and games set out for kids, like a bouncy castle, some (mini) mini-golf courses and a mini skate park.
Just closing the street to cars made the space much nicer, and there were way more people there than when the street was open to cars.
Speaking as a car owner 15 minutes from a big downtown…
Car friendly downtown is impossible, and this is much better. Have some big park and ride areas well outside of downtown and bus people into the area, with some slow scooters if people really didn’t want to walk that much.
They closed one of the big downtown roads to vehicles and it’s so much nicer.