In my city we finally decided to install a tram line over a long avenue. Do you know that "classic" 4 lanes avenue where one lane on each side is practically reserved for assholes to "temporarily park" with hazard lights blinking?

So it becomes from ~~4~~ 2 lanes to 2 lanes + tram. Win, right? I read an article about a sports goods store where the owner says "we decided to close shop now (when the tram construction isn't even started) because next year without the space for customers to park (there isn't now) how we could we continue business?"

I don't understand the logic behind this. Are they expecting folks to shop whilst still in their cars?

Any small, local business owner that believes foot traffic will hurt their business should just close up shop already. Because they are idiots.

Not only is it better for the health of the community not to have cars there, but it strengthens the community by allowing people to interact with each other like human beings, and not caged animals.

In my country they do both: the roads have crazy car drivers and the sidewalks are covered with these vendors

There's nowhere to walk. It's a nightmare

I think I told this one here at some point, but in my town we had a particular storeowner who aggressively opposed making a street pedestrian-only. I'm talking camping in town hall as a protest. Threatening a hunger strike. This lady was on a mission. Her storefront was plastered with propaganda about how this was going to kill the town.

She was an absolute nuisance and her karmic punishment for this? She has prime commercial real estate on the most popular street in town while stores in streets open for traffic had to relocate or close because all the business happens in the car-free area.

But this street isn’t closed all year is it? I mean, this is part of an art festival. I am all for closing streets and building walkable/bikable communities. But don’t pick and choose based off a single event that draws a crowd regardless of it takes place on a street or in a park.

And yet the shop owners will see this and then decide to just reject reality and still complain anyway about all those imaginary cars constantly stopping by to buy something.

It's nice to see that this asphalt area is being used for something valuable for society!

Tell it to fucking swanston and bourke, dickheads

Speaking as a car owner 15 minutes from a big downtown...

Car friendly downtown is impossible, and this is much better. Have some big park and ride areas well outside of downtown and bus people into the area, with some slow scooters if people really didn't want to walk that much.

They closed one of the big downtown roads to vehicles and it's so much nicer.

Man, my first visit to Montreal was for heavy Montreal 2019 (BRING THAT BACK DAMNIT), and I loved walking down the pedestrian only streets near where we were staying.

West TO reporting:

Without checking thoroughly, I think I lived near this street. It was really nice to walk there in the summer. Greater Montreal has several streets that close for cars in the summer. In French it’s called “piétonnisation”. But even here, there is resistance from stores. This year the City tried to make the Ste Catherine st. a big walkable street. It’s already like this in the gay village. They wanted to do also in downtown near Eaton Center where some streets already close for big events, like the F1. It didn’t work out. In the south shore, the St Charles st is also closed for cars.

In the bumfuck town I live in, they are barring the streets in the old town every weekend because it increases foot traffic and local stores were dying off. It's still pretty run down and in bad shape, but better than before.

Went to my town's farmer's market this morning. No dead businesses there, hell they seem to love it.

People who still to this day make that argument are either malicious or willfully pig ignorant. Every trial with carless zones has shown the 180 degree opposite of that statement.

Montréal me manque ;( :(

I think Jane Jacobs figured this out in 1961.

There's always foot traffic by me and I wouldn't want it otherwise.

Now if we could get rid of on street parking and put in separated bike lanes...

This is simple urbanism. Cars don't stop in to see what a new business has to offer, pedestrians do. Pedestrians don't need parking. Good urbanism makes local business boom. They are terrified of it.

In addition to creating more pedestrian only zones, I like our "Verkehrsberuhigter Bereich (Living Zone?)" too.