Dear editor,
How many of the people that drive regularly down a street to shop in one or two stores are aware of what all the stores and businesses in that street have to offer?
Few of them. A car-free Sunday is therefore the best opportunity for all the businesses in that street to be discovered by lots of potential customers.
Car-free Sunday in many countries is when a relatively wide area of a town is off-limits to cars, either once a year or once a month, depending on the town.
Paradoxically, car-free Sundays came well after major shopping streets became car-free year round, first in Copenhagen and Munich in the 1960s, then in many towns in Western Europe from the 1970s on.
Since then, year-round pedestrian shopping streets have opened in thousands of towns, big and small, around the world: Asia, South America, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, etc.
Many of the pedestrian shopping areas I have seen in several countries have been open for so long that young adults have always known them. It is obvious by now that it does work.
Best wishes for a happy celebration on Sept. 25.
J-L Brussac,
Coquitlam
