Rachel Cernansky
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It's Walk & Bike Month here in Boulder, and for "Park(ing) Spaces Day," businesses around Boulder last week "adopted" parking spaces. For one day, those spots were no longer meant for cars—instead, the businesses converted them into car-free, fun-filled, bike- or walking-friendly celebrations.
A local fair trade store set up a Tibet 'trunk show' in its storefront parking space, and planned to donate profits from sales of Tibetan-made goods to the Dropenling Tibet Handicraft Development Center.
A local cupcake shop teamed up with the neighboring solar-powered yogurt store and set out some grass where people could enjoy free cupcakes, smoothies, and coffee. The company that supplied the store's solar panels was also there displaying a solar-powered water cooler—all in two normally cars-only parking spaces.
A nearby cafe blocked off the parking spot in front, banning cars and allowing bikes to park instead. Not to be left out, a baby store down the street set up little sandboxes and provided hula hoops and sidewalk chalk (notice the picture?) so that little ones could enjoy the no-cars-allowed day, too—and maybe to plant in their little minds the seed for a bike-friendly attitude and the lesson that being green can be fun.
Tee & Cakes summed up the point of the day this way:
This is a light-hearted attempt to raise awareness of a serious issue, the trade-off of space allocated for automobiles versus space for human activities. This event symbols our desire to rethink how we use our streets. This is a big part of what Walk & Bike Month is all about, raising awareness for a more sustainable community.
Bike-friendly events continue all month—if you're in or passing through Boulder, check them out, and if you're not, how about encouraging similar efforts in your own city?
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