15 years later, Commercial Drive Car Free Day still champions sustainable transportation

Thousands of people hit Vancouver's Commercial Drive on Sunday to take part in the 15th annual Car Free Day Festival, despite some rain and cool weather. 

The festival, which also takes place on Main Street and in the West End on other dates, began as way to encourage the city to create more pedestrian-only areas. 

Tanya Ortero, one of the event's organizers, says it started as a community protest but over the years has turned into more of a festival that continues to focus on community and the environment.

"We definitely want to highlight the fact that the streets are for people," Ortero said.

The festival still advocates for more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation like walking, cycling and taking public transit.

However, calls to make the area — known to many as "The Drive" — completely car-free have mostly died down.

In 2009, the city passed a motion for a program called Summer Spaces, which shut down six roads on Sundays for the season. But Commercial Drive pulled the plug early because both residents and business owners complained. 

Giuseppe Mandarino, a business owner on Commercial Drive, says shutting down traffic is impractical because the street is a thoroughfare that provides access to a lot of places. 

Similarly, business owner Phil Henri says there's not enough parking in the area to support blocking off all the parking spots along The Drive. 

"So you start filling up the alleys, right? And you're going to start parking in front of people's houses," Henri said, adding that a lot of the side streets only allow residents to park with a permit.