Car Free Day will become Car Free Month in fall 2021!
Since 2008, Car Free Vancouver Society has hosted Car Free Days along Commercial Drive, Main Street, and the West End to nurture and grow the car free culture. By blocking off major thoroughfares, Car Free Days gave people the chance to experience what cities could be like with more space for pedestrians, not cars.
In 2020, the pandemic forced Car Free Days to pivot to an online format, where we held virtual concerts, scavenger hunts, and audio tours. This year, we want to safely engage with our supporters and partners and foster the community that is so important to us. In order to adhere to public health guidelines and still focus on giving back, we have decided to hold a month-long festival that includes a series of small events. Starting Sunday, August 29th and running to Saturday, September 25th, we will host a series of markets, performances, parklets, bike rides, audio tours, and more.
We feel that this aligns with what our supporters are looking for in our events, and that's a sense of community. By hosting a series of smaller events, we believe that the 'car free' vision can be experienced in neighbourhoods we have not reached before and provide more accessibility options, while also continuing to work with the partners that have supported us in previous years.
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Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 12:00 PM through September 19, 2021
Audio Tours
Last year, Car Free Vancouver launched a series of self-guided audio walking tours of the West End to create a car-free activity that could be enjoyed safely alone or with your core bubbles. We are excited to be bringing them back again as part of Car Free Month starting September 11, 2021! These audio tours will encourage you to explore your communities on foot, bike, scooter, wheelchair, skateboard, or however you move through the world without a vehicle, and can be done solo or in household groups. Tour guides will share fascinating facts, amusing stories, and interesting anecdotes that you may have never heard before about our city. This year, we will focus on the East Van, Strathcona, and Mt. Pleasant areas.
Accessing the tours' audio is easy. Simply follow these steps:
1: Download the free Guidigo app to your device (widget or Google Play). It is both Android and iOS friendly.2: Follow this link to the tours.3: Get outside and enjoy!Stay tuned for more tour releases by following us on Instagram and signing up for our mailing list on our website. We can't wait for us all to learn more about Vancouver together!
For more information, visit the main tour page here.
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Saturday, September 25, 2021 at 04:00 PM
Outdoors in Vancouver, BC, CanadaCar Free PUP Ride - September 25, 2021
Couldn't make it to the first PUP ride on August 29th? Love them so much that you want to do both? The second PUP ride of Car Free Month will wrap up the festival season on September 25, 2021 and we'd love to have you join us!
We warmly welcome new participants and seasoned PUP ride aficionados alike. For those of you joining us for the first time (yay!), a PUP ride is a group bike tour with stops along the way featuring outdoor performances from local artists. You don’t have to be a pro cyclist to join us, just bring your sense of humour and adventure, a bike light for your safety, and your friends and family if you want to.
In typical PUP ride fashion, performances are kept a surprise until the day. Please be aware that rides are not a closed loop - that is, we will not end where we started.
We will begin gather at the North-West side of the Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza (šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square) at 4:00 pm and will depart at 4:30 pm after a land acknowledgement and welcome.
PUP rides are free to attend and donations to Car Free Vancouver Society are much appreciated. We suggest showing your support for our artists by bringing $2 for each of the 3-4 performances you'll see on the ride!
See you there!
By RSVPing and/or participating in this group bike tour, riders release Car Free Vancouver and its affiliates of liability from any and all claims or losses related to this event.