Car Free Day on Commercial Dr.

This happened a few weeks ago now, but I'm just getting around to writing about it.

What a wonderful concept. Close down a busy thoroughfare and have a street party. There was street hockey, DJ's, Dancing, and eating. There were Tall Bikes. My kids loved the Tall bikes. A could have ridden them all day if we would have let him. T needed some help -- she is not off her training wheels yet and the "bend in half" bike proved to be a challenge, both for her to stay on and me to coordinate.

The festival was a great community event. There were 10's of thousands of people there. The idea for the festival was initially as a protest against the widening of a major highway entering Vancouver. The "Gateway Project" threatens to bring more and more traffic through the Commercial Drive area, something residents, and others (10's of thousands of others), are against.

Building roads is not the way out of congestion. It is a short term solution to a bigger problem. We are going build more highways so we can support more cars, more development in outlying areas, and ultimately be in the same situation as we are now -- Gridlock. Gridlock with MORE cars. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Thank goodness we can close a street down for a day and have a festival. We should do this more often!