EDITORIAL: Car-free zones are worth talking about
May 21-The idea is something out of a progressive utopia. And while the thought of car-free cities might be far-fetched, there are benefits to promoting pedestrian spaces and public transit and multimodal transportation in urban areas.
All of this comes to mind with news that the city of Vancouver will close a portion of Waterfront Way during weekends through the summer. "After hearing positive feedback from businesses, visitors, and the community ... the city is piloting weekend pedestrian-only access on part of Waterfront Way through Labor Day weekend," city officials posted on social media.
Waterfront Way - the street closest to the Columbia River through The Waterfront Vancouver development - will be closed from 4 p.m. Fridays to 5 a.m. Mondays between Parkway Place and Esther Street.
There are practical implications. A spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department cites safety, noise and speeding issues along the two-block stretch, particularly during the area's busy summer season.
But there also are philosophical concerns regarding how Americans build and enjoy their cities.
To be clear, Vancouver is not a metropolis tasked with balancing the needs of a million or more people. But the waterfront development serves as a microcosm of larger developments in larger cities. As the Climate Connections initiative at Yale University writes about the dominant trend in urban planning, "Local officials are rethinking their streets, aiming for fewer cars and more sustainable ways to get around."
Critics complain that such plans amount to social engineering designed to get people out of their cars. Undoubtedly, a vast majority of Americans rely on personal vehicles for transportation to visit places such as The Waterfront Vancouver.
The city of Vancouver's Complete Streets Program is designed, in part, to "Meet the needs of all ages, abilities, and modes of travel (walking, biking, transit, driving, deliveries, emergency vehicles)." But there have been some drawbacks.
Efforts to reduce traffic lanes on Columbia Street downtown, McGillivray Boulevard in east Vancouver and elsewhere have been met with boisterous opposition. One grassroots effort sought to require voter approval for any effort to reduce the number of traffic lanes in the city, but the initiative ultimately was kept off the ballot.
That issue is a corollary to the one of closing streets. Making pedestrian-free zones reduces emissions (at least in the immediate area) and enhances vibrancy and human interactions. Studies also have shown that, counterintuitively, it reduces traffic in surrounding areas.
But there are limits to those benefits, and there must be limits to the goals. One website last year went so far as to include Portland and Seattle on a list of 12 major U.S. cities that will be completely car-free by 2035 - a prospect that seems as unrealistic as it is nonsensical. The article did not predict whether massive parking garages would be required at the city limits as people are forced to park and board a bus.
If we could start from scratch, American cities would look much different than they do today. But, alas, they have been built over decades or even centuries, evolving to meet the changing needs of the public. Those needs throughout the 20th century reflected a reliance on the automobile, which long has represented American independence and freedom.
A pilot program to temporarily close a street at Vancouver's waterfront does not alter that. But it does generate thoughtful discussion.
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