Vancouver city council mulls car-free Sundays

Regular car-free Sundays could be coming to four Vancouver neighbourhoods this summer.

Vancouver city council will meet Tuesday to decide on the so-called "summer spaces" pilot program.

City staff is recommending up to 28 street closures during car-free trials in four districts across the city.

Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimerproposed last December theidea of having a summer of car-free Sundays in select parts of the city.

"It's pretty exciting. There's some really interesting proposalsthat really captured the essence of what we hoped that they would [and] they bring economic activity into an area," she said.

The proposals have come from community groups and business improvement associations across the city.

In a report to council, staff is recommending four districts make the cut for city support.

They include Commercial Drive; Main Street in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood; Gastown, which is hoping for a new weekly farmers' market; and Collingwood, near the Joyce Street Skytrain station, which is proposing an open-air market.

Reimer doesn't think closing these zones to cars, and opening them to people, will cause a major disruption.

"All of them are on the weekend, in areas of the city that have very low traffic on weekends," she said.

The pilot program will cost up to $200,000, which would come from the Parking Sites Reserve, a fund normally used to develop parking spots.