Car Free Zones

Marion,

You may find this site of interest: http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/

Marilyn Sobanski

Rainbow Recycling
Black Mountain, NC

In Toronto Pedestrian Sundays is a car free extravaganza in one of our downtown neighbourhoods http://www.pskensington.ca/ In fact one of the organizers, Yvonne Bambrick was highlighted in the weekend paper (Globe and Mail, March 29, 2008) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080329.MAVERICK29/TPStory /?query=yvonne+bambrick

Kady Cowan

Energy Steward
University Health Network
416-340-4800 x 5740
kady.cowan@uhn.on.ca

The redevelopment of Trafalgar Square in London has been a big success. There is a snapshot of information here http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/walking/success/encouragingwalking andcycling5794?page=9#a1008, however a more thorough search may provide better information. There are other case studies in that report that may also cite results of similar projects. Do note that these are all 'success stories', not ones that haven't been so successful. An example that I have heard about that has not been so successful is Nottingham town centre. While it looks very nice & is pleasant during the daytime there is not sufficient public use of the space in the evenings, leading to problems of crime & perception of security issues. I have heard that to avoid this in other areas the streets have been opened to cars in the evening to ensure that the space is effectively used as much as possible.

Best,
Alexis

Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood is the poster child for the economic devastation that unthinking restrictions can have on a neighborhood. The "pedestrian mall" cut off businesses from drivers and destroyed the stores, pitching the entire neighborhood into a dramatic decline that it is only now recovering from. Here's an article that has some good background info and some things to keep in mind: http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20000521eastliberty1.asp I am not saying it *cannot* be done, but every day I pass through the reminder of what happens if it is not *well* done.

Mary Whitney

Program Specialist
Rachel Carson Institute
Chatham University
412-365-1686
MWhitney@chatham.edu

The Danes have run car free days in the old part of Copenhagen. Talk to the Copenhagen Council, or check out their web site. They have worked with traders to overcome their concerns, and I recall have run the experiemnt several times.

regards
Jane Waldock

Customer Services Engineer
ph: 9846 0527
mobile: 0412 488 386

Marion;

See http://www.churchstmarketplace.com/history.html for an extensive history of Church St. marketplace, an auto restricted area in Burlington, VT. Potentially helpful info. on process, collaborators, funding, etc.

There was some work done by Sustrans (summary below), more can be found on their website under Projects, Liveable Neighbourhoods, on how retailers over-estimate the importance of car drivers to their business, and under estimate walkers and cyclists. Although this isn't directly related to car free days, its good information around some of the issues. Hope this is useful.

Karin

Shoppers and How They Travel

Research on retail vitality conducted by Sustrans has found that pedestrians are positive news for local trade. 'Shoppers and how they travel', the first study of its kind to look at neighbourhood shopping areas, highlights the importance of catering for pedestrians and bus passengers at local shops as these customers are better for business. And, with almost half of the customers living within one mile of the shops, could this mean that out of town shopping centres are not the retail heaven they appear to be? Interestingly Sustrans' research found that retailers significantly overestimate how far their customers travel and the importance of the car, while underestimating how many shops each customer visits. Retailers overestimated the importance of car-borne trade by almost 100%, believing that 41% of their customers arrived by car, whereas only 22% had done - actually over half of shoppers walked. National research on number of trips taken by mode of transport show that 61% of all journeys were made by car and just 1.5% by bike1. However Sustrans' research revealed that in making local shopping trips only 22% were by car and 10% by bike (over six times the national cycling average). The results show that most customers are local. Retailers estimated that just 12% of customers lived within half a mile, and 40% more than two miles away. In reality, 42% had travelled less than half a mile and 86% had travelled less than two miles. These very good customers usually don't just visit one shop. Traders believed that as many as one in four shoppers would make just one visit but this figure was actually only 13%. They thought less than one in ten would visit more than three shops, remarkably, almost 30% did so. Peter Lipman, Sustrans' Director for Liveable Neighbourhoods, said: "These findings have a real significance for business, land use and transport planning. It is traditional for retailers to focus on car access and parking, and to resist measures to promote walking, cycling and public transport use - although pedestrian shopping areas tend to be commercially most successful. Interviews with traders, shoppers and neighbours show that local people would like to see the impact of traffic reduced. "The picture is of local shoppers mainly walking to the shops, and visiting a number of stores. Interestingly, this is also the picture of healthy, physically active lifestyles and streets full of people. This is just the thing urban transport planners, public health specialists and community leaders want to see. Sustrans' view is that we should do all we can to support and grow this active, community based local market."

Sustrans website - Projects, Liveable Neighbourhoods.

Hi,

You should download our 180 page document on carfree development which has all details on this (look for it in www.sutp.org - module 3e, after free registration). Also, it has a review of all studies regarding impact on retail revenue and even land value- see table 10 of that document!! Let me know if you need more info.

Best regards,
Carlosfelipe Pardo

Coordinador de Proyecto-
Project Coordinator GTZ -
Proyecto de Transporte Sostenible
(SUTP, SUTP-LAC) Cl 93A # 14-17 of 708
Bogot D.C., Colombia
Tel/fax: +57 (1) 236 2309
Mobile: +57 (3) 15 296 0662
carlos.pardo@gtz.de www.gtz.de
(carlos.pardo@sutp.org www.sutp.org )