Taking over a Hong Kong street for pleasure, not protest

Hong Kong

AS Dennis Wu sat with hundreds of people in the middle of a busy Hong Kong street recently, the scene felt to him like the pro-democracy protests of 2014 all over again.

Except that Mr Wu, an 18-year-old student, and those around him were not looking over their shoulders, worried about a police crackdown. This time they were taking part in a car-free experiment in Hong Kong's Central district, where the protests erupted two years ago and blockaded the area from traffic for weeks.

"The only difference is the mood," he recalled.

Though the protests petered out without achieving their goals, they showed that Central, a busy financial district usually clogged with vehicles, was much more pleasant without traffic. After t…