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@The_Seldom_Killer
We've been having some success north of of the M25. CycleSheffield have managed to persuade the local council to run a trial pedestrianisation of Division Street, one of the main retail areas in the city centre which still carries traffic.
Its one of those things that has been asked for before but ended up being pushed aside or filed in the big round file of nice ideas that'll definitely be looked at one day when there's some money just lying around. Back in April, one of our members mocked up an image of what the street could look like as a car free space and it got spread around social media to a fairly good reception. Even after it got picked up by the local newspaper and pushed beyond our usual reach, there was a lot of public support for the idea.
Back in June we managed to organise a drop in session for businesses to talk about whether this could work for them. Of those that attended, the response was overwhelmingly positive to the point that some of the businesses were wondering how soon the street could be permanently pedestrianised.
On the back of this we submitted a proposal to the Council to run a trial pedestrianisation on Car Free Day this weekend (21st/22nd September). Disappointingly they rejected the request on the grounds there were already road closures in the city centre for a 10k run and it is the usual student moving in day for students of the two universities in the city. Students at both use accommodation on roads that join on to Division Street. However, after a meeting and some calendar checking they have agreed to a closure of the road on the weekend of 19th/20th October from 10am to 4pm.
We're being given the road closure as an event for CycleSheffield so we're now busy scrambling around to organise a car free environment for the weekend. Hopefully we're going to be able to log some outcomes which will justify further trials and a pathway to either permanent or regularised pedestrianisation.
One of the key issues for us is that there has been a very tangible shift in both the public and the political will to try out something different. I suspect that this is broader than just the northern haven of joy that is Sheffield so if any organisations have had something similar as an idea, now could be a very good time to give it a serious go.
https://www.cyclesheffield.org.uk/2019/08/03/pedestrianise-division-street/