Dimanches sans voitures / Car-free Sundays
Closing streets on the weekend is a big trend right now in cities across the world. The idea is to give citizens an experience with taking back their streets. It is also a way for the city to provide meaningful public space on those days that people need it most … the weekend.
(image found here.)
San Francisco, New York, Bogota, Guadalajara, Curitiba, Vancouver and many many others are experimenting with these sorts of one day, large-scale street closures on multiple weekends throughout the summer. For some examples, go here and here.
My question is … where would be some good places to try this in Montréal? And I am not talking about the street closures we already have where boutiques and businesses clog the streets with their merchandise and kiosks.
I am talking about closing streets and leaving LOTS of room for people, bikes, talking, sitting, hanging out. Sure, there can be some booths and services, but the focus should be on leaving space for people.
Montréal simply doesn’t do that (or not enough).
The cities mentioned above often pick a different street to close each weekend, or one weekend a month. That way the experiment is tried across the city.
What would be some good sites in Montréal? Or maybe more realistically, in the Plateau?
