Vehicles are expected to be sidelined on Cruice Lane and kept out of adjacent parking lots on Sept. 22 for Gibsons’ first car-free block party.
Car Free in Lower G, co-hosted by Tapworks and the Gibsons Public Art Gallery (CPAG), will feature live music, a bike valet, non-profit booths and sidewalk sales from noon to 6 p.m. At least one internally-combusting engine is expected to be on site in the form of a food truck. Coast Car Co-op is also slated to make an appearance.
For CPAG president Stewart Stinson, part of the attraction of holding the event is that it will make use of their ample outdoor parking lot – which is often filled by vehicles whose drivers are not visiting the gallery. Stinson called it “a good way to test it out, to see how it will work as an event space.”
Sept. 22 is World Car Free Day, an international event meant to encourage people to walk more and drive less. While the inaugural Gibsons event is taking place away from traffic, in part to avoid the bureaucracy associated with permits required to close roads, car-free days usually involve the closure of streets to vehicle traffic and in some places, entire cities.
