Kyoto to trial car-free weekends in its tourist heart
Local shopkeepers are cautiously in favour. Residents cite quieter Saturdays as the biggest promise.
Kyoto's city hall will trial car-free weekends across four of its most-visited streets from next month, in what officials described as an attempt to “reset the balance” between residents and record visitor numbers.
The measure applies to Saturdays and Sundays only, and exempts hotel drop-offs and deliveries before 08:00. Buses will be rerouted; the taxi lobby, which had opposed a full ban, said it could “live with the compromise”.
Residents, polled by the city, backed the trial two to one. “What people want,” the deputy mayor said, “is a Saturday they can hear.”