Car Free Friday returns to downtown Stratford, promoting alternative transportation

Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma, Ross Taylor and Brad Baker of Ross’ Bike Works at Car Free Friday. Ross’ Bike Works provided free bicycle tune-ups.

Car Free Friday, run by the Downtown Stratford Business Improvement Area (BIA), returned to Market Square on June 5 to promote active transportation like walking and cycling as well as taking public transit rather than driving.

"I think this has been a tremendous success, I think partly because of weather and partly because we have partnered with a lot of different groups today,” said Kim Griffiths, member liaison of the Downtown Stratford BIA.

Car Free Friday came after World Cycling Day, which was on June 3. Attendees could register their bikes with the Stratford Police Service, get tune ups on their bike done by Ross’ Bike Works, and speak to representatives from the City of Stratford, Cycle Stratford and Stratford Walking Tours.

Griffiths said Car Free Friday encourages other modes of transportation to decrease traffic congestion during a busy summer season with lots of tourists coming to Stratford.

“With the festival ramping up, we have more and more cars visiting so it's just nicer to try to get downtown without having to worry about your car and parking spaces and things like that but also just to keep our residents healthy,” she said.

Nathaniel Smith, transit supervisor, spoke about the two new mobility buses. The buses have more comfortable seats that are easier to fold up, better restraints for mobility devices and improved controls for the driver, plus more windows offering a panoramic view. One of the buses is replacing an older bus retiring out, and the other is brand new to the fleet, bringing the total number of Stratford Transit mobility buses to six.

"It's our opportunity to provide more service to our community,” Smith said.

Updating the fleet ensures safe travels for the transit riders.

"When we're out on the road and we have passengers on board, no matter whether that's accessible passengers or otherwise, we don't want to risk breakdowns,” Smith said. “So, if a lift goes down with somebody on a walker or a wheelchair on that lift, that could cause major issues and safety concerns as to how do we get this person off that lift. When we keep things up to date and in good condition, it prevents a lot of the mechanical issues that we may have." 

Previously, the Downtown Stratford BIA held multiple Car Free Fridays in the summer months. However, the organization decided to run just one Car Free Friday this year.

"We felt that the last couple of Car Free Fridays in the summer are less attended I think due to vacations and school schedules, and we thought that we would do a bigger bang one and I think it's been successful,” Griffiths said.