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It’s back: First car-free Sunday in Copenhagen taking place next month
Christian Wenande
August 17th, 2016
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Event will be limited edition due to budget constraints
You can forget driving on Østerbrogade, Strandboulevarden, Nørrebrogade, Enghavevej and Ingerslevsgade on September 18 (photo: Pixabay)
First it was going to happen. Then it was scrapped because of budget constraints. And now, the car-free Sunday in Copenhagen has made a triumphant return. Well, perhaps not triumphant. Perhaps ‘limited return’ is a more apt description.
Copenhagen Municipality has revealed the capital will have a car-free day on September 18, although it will only involve closing down five central streets in the city until 20:00: Østerbrogade, Strandboulevarden, Nørrebrogade, Enghavevej and Ingerslevsgade.
“It’s a considerably smaller edition of the car-free day we proposed last year,” Morten Kabell, the deputy mayor of technical and environmental issues, told P4 radio station.
“But it can still help show what a city can be used for when you don’t use all the space for cars. And then we can do it much better in 2017.”
READ MORE: Car-free day in Copenhagen looking unlikely
On the cheap
By planning the car-free date on September 18 – the same day as the Copenhagen Half Marathon – the municipality has managed to reduce the price from 4.7 million kroner to just 400,000 kroner.
The half-marathon will close many of the city’s streets anyway.
The municipality has encouraged citizens to come up with ideas for what events can take place on the five closed streets now that cars will be absent.
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