Transportation - Car Free Zone

Carfree: Failure by Design

By Lela Gary
Air Pollution Coalition of Ontario
Letter to Eye - 08.19.04

Misha Glouberman is partially right in his observation of the merchants' complaint over business losses and the changing of the Kensington Market atmosphere ("Cars over happy children?," Op-ed, Aug. 5). However, car-free zones were never meant to be a party or a temporary event, as both city staff and local organizers chose to make it. Of course party-goers are not shoppers; they go for fun, not for groceries. The three downtown areas proposed for car-free zones, were based on the successful model of European cities, especially Copenhagen's infrastructure as designed by renowned architect Jan Gehl. There are 105 cities worldwide that enjoy car-free areas. Could they all be wrong?

In Toronto, where blind leads blind, success is indeed debatable. Considering the council's support in accommodating and facilitating auto-transport, assigning complicated tasks to unqualified staff and local residents is perhaps their strategy to achieve the intended failure. Unless they contract a prominent architectural firm to plan the appropriate design for a successful car-free infrastracture, this project will fizzle out like other projects in the city, leaving many disappointed and cynical over the whole thing.