All around the world, cities are turning some of their road spaces over to parks, playgrounds and markets - places where people, rather than cars, are the priority.

Last weekend, our region made a small yet important step toward reimagining what our largest public spaces - our streets - can be.

For four days, a block of Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener was temporarily closed to car traffic. In its place came picnic tables, games, music and other activities that brought people together. While this was a small space, it represents a hugely important moment for our community.

The Gaukel Street pop-up park was the result of a genuinely bottom-up community initiative. Led by Sam Nabi, a local entrepreneur, website developer and activist, a diverse group of residents took this from dream to reality in a matter of months. They have received support from the City of Kitchener, but make no mistake, this is a truly grassroots project.

This project also directly challenges the idea that every street should be completely accessible to cars, all the time. Unfortunately, that has been the dominant view in this region and most areas in Ontario for decades. By showing that a road can be turned into a park, bringing enjoyment, but not gridlock, the idea that streets should be the sole purveyance of cars has been shattered - opening a vision of wonder and inspiration about how our streets can be reimagined.

Let's start by asking whether Gaukel - linking city hall and Victoria Park - should be a permanent pedestrian street. There appears to be momentum for it. The four-day pop-up event was a big success - neighbours got to interact with each other, parents could let their children play without fear of being run over, all without the constant hum of cars that usually dominates an urban street. My answer would be yes.

That raises the question of what other streets could be reimagined in a similar way? In uptown Waterloo, many residents have been calling for Willis Way to be pedestrianized. To me, this is a no-brainer. It is of little use to the city's road network yet is the main walking route from the Ion station to the heart of uptown.

Imagine the kind of welcome mat to the uptown that could be created; it could, for example, be a literal red carpet to bring you into the uptown. Even if it's not possible to close a street to cars, more and more residents are beginning to ask how streets in their neighbourhoods can be slowed down and narrowed, so that they can be safer and more pleasing environments.

A larger question is whether our prime urban spaces - downtown and uptown - should be used as through routes by cars and trucks merely trying to pass through them. Policies to keep streets like King open, but that make it impossible to drive through, would mean that through traffic could be redirected to routes where it's more efficient, such as the Conestoga Parkway, and the surplus road space could be reimagined in all sorts of ways.

From there, we can start asking what a larger pedestrian zone might look like. What types of businesses would thrive having an attractive urban park rather than a crowded, noisy street right in front of their door?

Given the number of patios and storefront displays that spill out onto the sidewalks, my guess is that most current businesses will do just fine and the enhanced quality of the street would make a pedestrian zone an extremely desirable location. Almost every example of a successful pedestrian street demonstrates that initial business opposition quickly dissipates as the newly reimagined street becomes a popular destination in and of itself.

It's important to stress that this is not a matter of pedestrians versus cars. For better or worse, cars will have a place in our cities for the foreseeable future. It is about asking whether we want our most important public spaces and city centres to be dominated by them. Or can we do better than that?

Even in large pedestrian zones in European cities, there are often parking garages on their edges, the idea being that some people will need to drive to the city centre, but once there, they can enjoy it on foot. Some cities have official "park and walk" policies to ensure efficient ways to get to the edge of the downtown by car and after the car has been parked there are pleasant walking routes to enjoy on foot.

More people in our own community are realizing that not every street needs to have cars on it, and the best public spaces are the ones where people, not automobiles, dominate. Gaukel Street has been an important step in demonstrating this and has shown that our best urban spaces are the ones you walk around, not drive through.

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