Report - Car Free Day in Toronto - Sept.21.2000
By Gary Morton

   Today the first Toronto Car Free Day was celebrated via a Parking Meter Party on College Street between Clinton and Manning Ave.

   The event has become a worldwide movement and members of Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists, Greenspiration, the Sierra Club and other groups have convinced City Council to look into the idea of an official Car Free Day. Places like Paris, Rome and London have city supported Car Free Days that are big events.

   Currently the Toronto event is activist and citizen run and at 6 p.m. the party began with cyclists and other supporters paying for parking meters and putting banners on the street. A truck with rolls of sod drove up and soon the pavement was turned to grass. Lawn chairs, guitars and people settled on the grass, flowers were planted and food in the form of cakes got passed around.

   Soon police arrived and organizers including Mayoral Candidate Tooker Gomberg listened as officers stated that a permit was needed for such an event.

   People hung around anyway.

   Here's a clip from Tooker's campaign digest on the issue of Car Free Day.  "There are way too many cars on the planet;" said Gomberg, "over 500 million, and growing by a car a second. This is a serious, if not critical overpopulation crisis. The beauty and livability of a city goes up when the population of cars goes down. If elected Mayor I will work to realize a car-free Kensington Market, as well as a significant depaving program in Toronto's downtown."

   A reduction in Toronto cars is badly needed. Lately Toronto has become a gridlock nightmare. Smog is killing a thousand people a year and the pavement on side streets is littered with road kill. Residential streets that used to be mostly car free mornings and evenings are now filling with traffic.

   Perhaps we need a Car Free EveryDay.

Car free Toronto - e-mail fred.ni@sympatico.ca

World Car Free Day - Web Site
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