We just had our first carfree day in Portland. There was a lot of anger/ranting/etc. about the event in the days leading up to it. Here is what actually happened:
They blocked off 6 miles of roadway and created a route with stops at parks along the way. Police would hold up the bike traffic, then the car traffic to ensure safety on all fronts.
The most interesting thing to me were the streets that were blocked off. Most of them were small, neighborhood streets where the only traffic is local residents to begin with, or pre-existing bike streets that cars avoid anyway because they are right next to a car thorough fare with a higher speed limit and no stop signs.
The people who lived on the streets could drive through, but it was Sunday, a low traffic day anyway. There were ALL kinds of people on the rides with lots of activities at the parks where people congregated.
The cars I saw did not have drivers already at the boiling point. In fact, the police made sure that the cyclist had to wait at intersections as long as the drivers.

So, yes, it is easy to get all ruffled, and anxious like people got in Portland, but after the event, it was no big deal and all the anxiety leading up to it died away afterwards. Check the streets that the event is supposed to shut of and the day/time and see if it will REALLY inconvenience you.

PS – Portland held its first Sunday Parkways event. I would estimate 97% of the thousands and thousands who attended it also own a car, and they didn’t seem too pissed off to me about closing six miles of streets for six hours –

http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/portlands-sunday-parkways/

On a somewhat related note, pitting car drivers “against” pedestrians, or cyclists in your article really isn’t helpful. Most people are multi-modal to some extent in their daily lives, and everybody is a pedestrian at some point in their day, even if it is just walking from their front door, to their car parked across the street. It helps not to be so narrow minded or black and white in your assumptions. That’s not what life is like.

Stewart – too bad, because all I see is people on foot being “inconvenienced” by constant, non-stop, noisy, polluting, arrogant awful car drivers 24/7 in my city, just so motorists can “feel good” about themselves by driving everywhere. Touche !

Better call the whaaaambulance!

Just to clarify, gas taxes don’t even come close to paying for the roads. Further, exclusive right-of-way has never been paid for by cars, but sometimes it seems as though it has been permanently granted. This might explain all the motorist entitlement I’m hearing around here.

Umm..
I drove from the first minute I could. The quality of my ride reflected my improving social/economic standing. I spent a lot of time focusing on the care and improvement of my ride.
I was very unhappy. I didn’t know why.

after 15 years of depression,etc, i started riding my bike. I didnt ditch my car. I moved to a neighborhood that was walkable and had a movie theater, a library, a couple of grocery stores. A bar in staggering distance. ( yay..no risk of a DUII !)

I was driving less and enjoying life more.

Now, I have no unrealistic notion that cars are going away anytime soon. We have been in love with the car since it came on the scene. But we have an opportunity with these ‘car free days’ to start focusing on a world that isnt separated by big busy streets and the glassed in box life of drive only. Park your car for an afternoon. Go enjoy a world that isnt centered on your car. the car will still be there tomorrow, and you will need it. but not as much, once you experience some life outside the car.

Nice post Jen – you’ve completely missed the point. The purpose of these events isn’t to “make drivers sit in endless traffic jams” – its to show how you can ditch the car to use the space in a new way.

Instead of trying to drive to everything you want and around everything else, think of the entire concept as undergoing change: Transportation modes are diversifying, and not just for a “fun day out” – but for day-to-day living. There’s nobody to blame – its the same thing every semi-capitalist society has had to deal with: Cost.

You may want to read a bit more before railing against such events, they’re educational and in your (yes your) own best interest. Wouldn’t you enjoy a few less cars packing the roads when you needed it, at the expense of you not driving just to blow more hot air?

Or, you could continue these humorous monologues. Somebody on the web is going to sink the bottom as the most out-of-touch with this change – why not be the one? Enjoy the distinction!

Yep, we have car-free experiments planned this summer in San Francisco too. Though I have a car and drive it, I can’t wait to see the streets transformed for a few hours or days. No question that I’ll be out there listening music and riding my bike around, maybe picnicking on the pavement with a view of the bay, enjoying the quiet and cleaner air, oh and saving money too.

As a driver you’d have to be a truly insecure person to be threatened by that. Jen, a few deep breaths may be in order. Or maybe a stress-relieving walk or bike ride.

Actually, yes roads have expanded but traffic is a mess in many cases because road capacity hadn’r expanded ENOUGH.
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A great example of this is the Schuylkill expressway between Philly and northwest suburbs. There was an upgrade to add lane capacity back in the 1980s (if I remember correcly). The project expanded the roadway as much as they could, given its location (aside a ridge much of the way), and its cost. At the time of completion, that roadway’s capacity was about half of what was needed.
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Another issue is something as basic as traffic light timing. I can cite numerous examples just from my personal experience where the timing of lights at intersections cause needless and constant backups in one direction, and luxuriously unrestricted flow at the same time in the other. Worse yet, believe it or not the timing of lights can be a deeply-entrenched beaurucratic fortress in at least some municipalities.
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Much of what is wrong, the excess of consumption and pollution is simply a matter of not making traffic run efficiently. Road crews work during the day in 100 degree heat while snarling traffic, when they could be doing the same thing at night in 80 degree temps. The list goes on and on. Tolls? don’t get me started but in short tolls are a hallmark of society’s lack of collective intellect.
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There’s so SO much more to the whole cars on roads issue that some occasional days when people take to the streets… which happens anyway for other reasons i.e.; 4th of July, Memorial Day, Christmas Day, New Years Day, Tournament of Roses, Flag Day, Leif Ericsson Day, lol…

Cars and roads have expanded, expanded, and expanded again their domain over all American public space in every city for the last 50 years. They have flattened communities in every city, they have obliterated nature and killed wildlife. For my entire life, the only idea to ’solve’ congestion has been to add more and wider roads.

Guess what? It doesn’t work. More roads induce more traffic, which induces more oil consumption, higher gas prices, more smog, more childhood asthma, more global warming, and more people stuck in more traffic in more cars for more time on longer and longer commutes.

It’s insane, and it couldn’t go on even if we wanted it to. America’s freeways are over-extended — the entire interstate highway system is coming up for 50-year maintenance at the same moment, right when the economy has been driven into a ditch.

Now, a healthy slice of normal Americans are organizing to borrow back some public space from cars. How much? A fucking drop. Less than a percent of a percent of a percent. And you blame *them* for congestion?

*Cars* cause congestion! You should write a thank-you card to every single bicycle commuter in Seattle, for getting the hell off of your personal freeway. You should be thrilled that car-free days are inviting drivers off the road, so there’s more space for you to do donuts in each of your four cars.

Drive less. You’ll enjoy it more.

Good idea, Joel! Parks ARE more pleasant. Let’s remove some of the streets and make them parks and gardens.