this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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Fuck Cars

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or buy bananas 🍌

or buy a sandwich πŸ₯ͺ

or buy seafood πŸŸπ“‡ΌπŸš

The important thing is that you just buy something.

For the first time, the City of Seattle banned cars in Pike Place Market this summer:

https://www.knkx.org/transportation/2025-05-08/seattle-pike-place-market-tests-car-ban-pilot-downtown-overlook-walk-flowers-vendors

Last year (2024), some politicians warned no one will shop here anymore if it’s pedestrianized :

https://publicola.com/2024/04/02/dont-open-pike-place-to-pedestrians-council-member-urges/

It's important Pike Place pedestrianization succeeds.

The stakes are high for the future of Seattle. If the experiment is considered a wild success, it will help fight back against pro-car politicians. But a failure will make future pedestrianization efforts harder.

So go out there and purchase something 🍏🍌πŸ₯ͺπŸŽπŸ›οΈ

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[–] brotundspiele@feddit.org 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

WTF, how did this place look like in the past? Was it really a drive-through farmers market? Sorry if I sound stupid here, but that's totally unimaginable for me as a non-USian. I've never seen a market that's not pedestrianised in my life.

You guys would also drive your cars through the shelves of Walmart if you could, wouldn't you?!

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

I used to work a block from there and was always shocked that people would just drive right through. There's nothing at all to see in a car. Unless you are delivering something, there's no reason for a vehicle to be there.

[–] frosty99c@midwest.social 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)
[–] Drusas@fedia.io 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wow, I've never seen the market that empty. Not when it's open, anyway.

[–] frosty99c@midwest.social 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm assuming COVID had something to do with it. Those photos are 3 and 4 years ago, and people are wearing masks.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 21 hours ago

Ah, that would do it.

its not really a drive through market, but there are two sections of the market which are divided by a short street about 180 meters in length. you would still have to get out of your car to shop at any of the shops/stalls. anybody driving their cars there previously would have to contend with a ton of pedestrian traffic, and there is minimal parking there anyway so i dont know why anyone non-service or vendor related would willingly use that street to access the market.

Mostly only tourists and suburbanites who followed bad advice from Google maps would actually attempt to drive through it. There's so many pedestrians around that you would end up spending ten minutes to drive a single block if you tried.