Montague Street could look more like Paris than Brooklyn Heights, thanks to a plan to close the street on Sundays in July, put out café tables and even install a lawn.

The Montague Street Business Improvement District has proposed turning three blocks between Clinton Street and the Promenade into a grassy, table-lined "Summer Space."

And business owners are already getting excited.

It has been a long-held dream of New Yorkers of a certain (greenish) stripe: the streets of Manhattan free of cars. Now, for a few hours, on a few streets, on a few weekends this summer, that dream will become reality.

It has been a long-held dream of New Yorkers of a certain (greenish) stripe: the streets of Manhattan free of cars. Now, for a few hours, on a few streets, on a few weekends this summer, that dream will become reality.

When New York City does something, it does it big. But does it do it right?

A 6.9-mile car-free route from the Brooklyn Bridge to the 72nd street entrance of Central Park will be opened for six hours during three Saturday mornings in August: the 9th, 16th, and 23rd, the Department of Transportation announced today. As part of the "Summer Streets" experiment, the city will organize fitness, dance, and yoga classes at a central stage along the route.

Queens cyclists will get a chance to celebrate their borough this Sunday during the first annual Tour de Queens bike ride.

More than 700 bicycle enthusiasts are expected to participate in the free 20-mile ride, which will start and end at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Transportation Alternatives has sponsored similar events in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

About 3,000 cyclists participated in the fourth annual Tour de Brooklyn last month. And about 5,000 people cycle through the Bronx every fall in the Tour de Bronx.

The first Tour de Queens, a free bicycle ride through parts of the borough, will be held on Sunday.

About 700 riders are expected to participate in the event sponsored by Transportation Alternatives. The group sponsors similar events in the Bronx and Brooklyn and now has decided to add Queens.

"This will definitely be an annual event. It's a great way to see the borough and a way to encourage people to ride a bike," said Wiley Norvell, spokesman for Transportation Alternatives.

This summer, New York will offer some free fun on wheels.

Starting Friday, bicycles will be available on Governors Island in New York Harbor _ at no cost to adults and children. Bike use will be free each Friday through Oct. 4.

The program is sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit advocacy group, to promote the traffic-free island with spectacular views of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

Last December Streetsblog noted that a new park planned for Governors Island would include a bike-share fleet, scheduled to debut in 2012. Turns out the wait for free bikes will be a lot shorter. Starting this week, 250 bikes at the island's rental outfit, Bike and Roll, will be available to visitors at no charge on Fridays, thanks to sponsorship from Transportation Alternatives.

Bicyclists in New York are known to possess an evangelical fervor. (What other mode of transportation has its own self-declared celebratory month? Imagine "city bus month.") Now another fervor-driven environmentally friendly transportation group is growing up behind them: the scooter obsessives.