Car-free days

Last updated
Brussels Car Free Day, 2022 Brussels Car Free Day 2022.jpg
Brussels Car Free Day, 2022
The Bois de la Cambre Car-Free Days, 2015 Bois de La Cambre by GdML.jpg
The Bois de la Cambre Car-Free Days, 2015
Jakarta weekly Car Free Day, 2010 Jakarta Car Free Day.jpg
Jakarta weekly Car Free Day, 2010

On car-free days, people are encouraged to travel by means other than cars. Some cities, like Jakarta and Tehran, have weekly car-free days. [1] Other such days are annual. World Car Free Day is celebrated on September 22. Organized events are held in some cities and countries. [2]

Contents

The events, which vary by location, give motorists and commuters an idea of their locality with fewer cars. The concept dates from the 1970s but was popularised in the 1990s.

Currently Bogotá holds the world's largest car-free weekday event covering the entire city. The first car-free day was held in February 2000 and became institutionalised through a public referendum. [3]

History and timeline

Car-free days are one of many car-free movement practices. The Car-free Spectrum.png
Car-free days are one of many car-free movement practices.

Origins

While projects along these lines had taken place from time to time on an ad hoc basis starting with the 1973 oil crisis, it was only in October 1994 that a structured call for such projects was issued in a keynote speech by Eric Britton at the International Ciudades Accessibles (Accessible Cities) Conference held in Toledo, Spain. [4]

Within two years the first Days were organized in Reykjavík (Iceland), Bath (United Kingdom) and La Rochelle (France), and the informal World Car Free Days Consortium [5] was organized in 1995 to support Car-Free Days worldwide. The first national campaign was inaugurated in Britain by the Environmental Transport Association in 1997, the French followed suit in 1998 as In town, without my car! and was established as a Europe-wide initiative by the European Commission in 2000. In the same year the Commission enlarged the program to a full European Mobility Week which now is the major focus of the Commission, with the Car-Free Day part of a greater new mobility whole.

In 1996, a Dutch action group, Pippi Autoloze Zondag, [6] started a national campaign for car free days. Pippi [7] organized monthly illegal street actions to take over the streets and stop the cars. After blocking the streets, there would be parties, picknicks, kids playing, rollerskate on the motorway, street painting and music artists playing. The police would break the party down and make arrests. Pippi went on to create a Dutch national group [8] to fight for car free days. Pippi lobbied every single national parliament politician from the Netherlands [9] and inspired Dutch national parties to adopt the concept of car free days in their agenda. Every major city government in the Netherlands received Pippi's proposals to implement car free days, forcing them to debate the issue. [10] After two years of actions, several cities in the Netherlands relented and started to implement car free days.

The Environmental Transport Association set the initial annual Car-Free Day on the first Tuesday in their Green Transport Week (around 17 June). In 2000 it was agreed to make it a self-standing day held on September 22, originally as a pan-European day organised under the auspices of the European Commission and later with international extensions—during which a large number of cities around the world are invited to close their centers to cars. Pedestrians, bicycles, public transit and other forms of sustainable transportation are encouraged on these days. People can reflect on what their city would look like with a lot fewer cars, and what might be needed to make this happen. Advocates claim that over 100 million people in 1,500 cities celebrate International Car-Free Day, though on days and in ways of their choice.[ citation needed ]

Also in 2000, car free days went global with a World Carfree Day [11] program launched by Carbusters, now World Carfree Network, and in the same year the Earth Car Free Day collaborative program of the Earth Day Network and the World Car Free Days collaborative.

Over the first decade of the car-free day movement (1994–2005), the world has seen hundreds of cities giving the approach a try in very different circumstances, some good, some undeniably bad, some of them on several occasions.[ citation needed ]

Activists in this field wondered what were the actual accomplishments. They suggested that it was agreeable to have a pleasant day with fewer cars and probably fewer accidents at least in some parts of the city, but considered that this was not the bottom line. For them the goal of a car-free day had from the beginning been to serve as a small step, as a catalyst in a much larger and more ambitious process of citywide systemic transformation toward a more truly sustainable mobility system. They suggested that with rare exceptions they were not seeing anything like that.[ citation needed ]

The persons involved in the movement thought that after ten years it was time to stand back and see what, if any, difference this approach had made. They asked themselves if CFDs made here or there had produced any significant permanent impacts on cities and the ways human beings get around in them. They wondered if they could be content with what the great bulk of these projects and programs had achieved and just keep going on as-is, or if it were not time to stand back and look again. They decided to fight complacency with a new international collaborative program starting in 2004.[ citation needed ]

Timeline: Some major events

The following chronology assembles some of the main events of the last decades, which together have gradually built on each other's accomplishments to leave us today with a movement that is only now beginning to get under way. There are a very large number of cities and events that are not covered here.

Car-free day in the Netherlands in 2002 Autoloze zondag.jpg
Car-free day in the Netherlands in 2002
Car-free Oxford Street, London, 2008. Oxford Street is proverbial for its air pollution. Car-free Oxford Street.jpg
Car-free Oxford Street, London, 2008. Oxford Street is proverbial for its air pollution.
Indonesia, 2011 Car-free-day.jpg
Indonesia, 2011

Regional car-free days

Car Free Day Call

The 1994 Car Free Day Call [42] set out a challenge for a city, neighborhood or group:

The exercise considered car users to be "addicts" who need to be "treated" in some way. The organisers considered this to mean that motorists should have no choice but to be without cars, at least for a time. In this particular instance the proposed "treatment" was to find an answer to the following question in three main parts:

Impact

According to The Washington Post , the event "promotes improvement of mass transit, cycling and walking, and the development of communities where jobs are closer to home and where shopping is within walking distance". [2] Studies showed that for short trips in cities, one can reach more quickly using a bicycle rather than using a car. [43]

While considerable momentum has been achieved in terms of media coverage, these events turn out to be difficult to organize to achieve real success (perhaps requiring significant reorganization of the host city's transportation arrangement) and even a decade later[ when? ] there is considerable uncertainty about the usefulness of this approach. Broad public support and commitment to change is needed for successful implementation. By some counts by advocates, more than a thousand cities worldwide organized “Days” during 2005.[ citation needed ]

Cyclists ride down the deserted Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur on Highway 20 Tel-Aviv.jpg
Cyclists ride down the deserted Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur.

While not an officially organized Car-Free Day, every year traffic in Israel stops (except for emergency vehicles) for more than 24 hours in observance of Yom Kippur. [44] This encompasses all motorized vehicles, including cars and public transportation (buses, trains, taxis, airplanes etc.). Cycling enthusiasts of the Hiloni stream and other religions take advantage of this, and roads (except in religious neighborhoods) become de facto esplanade and cycleways. Air pollution in Israel that day, measured by nitrogen oxides, dropped by 99 percent. [45]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reclaim the Streets</span> Advocacy group for community ownership of public spaces

Reclaim the Streets also known as RTS, are a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterise the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalisation, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bogotá</span> Capital and largest city of Colombia

Bogotá, officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá during the Spanish Colonial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital and largest city of Colombia, and one of the largest cities in the world. The city is administered as the Capital District, as well as the capital of, though not part of, the surrounding department of Cundinamarca. Bogotá is a territorial entity of the first order, with the same administrative status as the departments of Colombia. It is the main political, economic, administrative, industrial, cultural, airport, technological, scientific, healthcare and educational center of the country and northern South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bus rapid transit</span> Public transport system

Bus rapid transit (BRT), also referred to as a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes roadways that are dedicated to buses, and gives priority to buses at intersections where buses may interact with other traffic; alongside design features to reduce delays caused by passengers boarding or leaving buses, or paying fares. BRT aims to combine the capacity and speed of a light rail transit (LRT) or mass rapid transit (MRT) system with the flexibility, lower cost and simplicity of a bus system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedestrian zone</span> Urban car-free area reserved for pedestrian use

Pedestrian zones are areas of a city or town restricted to use by people on foot or human-powered transport such as bicycles, with non-emergency motor traffic not allowed. Converting a street or an area to pedestrian-only use is called pedestrianisation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Car-free movement</span> Movement to reduce the use of private vehicles

The car-free movement is a broad, informal, emergent network of individuals and organizations, including social activists, urban planners, transportation engineers, environmentalists and others, brought together by a shared belief that large and/or high-speed motorized vehicles are too dominant in most modern cities. The goal of the movement is to create places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated, by converting road and parking space to other public uses and rebuilding compact urban environments where most destinations are within easy reach by other means, including walking, cycling, public transport, personal transporters, and mobility as a service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable transport</span> Sustainable transport in the senses of social, environmental and climate impacts

Sustainable transport refers to ways of transportation that are sustainable in terms of their social and environmental impacts. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road, water or air transport; the source of energy; and the infrastructure used to accommodate the transport. Transport operations and logistics as well as transit-oriented development are also involved in evaluation. Transportation sustainability is largely being measured by transportation system effectiveness and efficiency as well as the environmental and climate impacts of the system. Transport systems have significant impacts on the environment, accounting for between 20% and 25% of world energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The majority of the emissions, almost 97%, came from direct burning of fossil fuels. In 2019, about 95% of the fuel came from fossil sources. The main source of greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union is transportation. In 2019 it contributes to about 31% of global emissions and 24% of emissions in the EU. In addition, up to the COVID-19 pandemic, emissions have only increased in this one sector. Greenhouse gas emissions from transport are increasing at a faster rate than any other energy using sector. Road transport is also a major contributor to local air pollution and smog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Think City</span> Compact electric hatchback

The Think City is an electric city car that was produced by Norwegian carmaker Think Global, and production partner Valmet Automotive from 2008 to 2012. It is a small two-seater/2+2-seater highway capable vehicle, with a top speed of 110 kilometres per hour (68 mph), and an all-electric range of 160 kilometres (99 mi) on a full charge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ciclovía</span> Open-streets events in Colombia and beyond

Ciclovía, also ciclovia or cyclovia, is a Spanish term that means "cycleway", either a permanent bike path or the temporary closing of certain streets to automobiles for cyclists and pedestrians, a practice sometimes called open streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carfree city</span> Urban area absent of motor vehicles

A carfree city is an urban area absent of motor vehicles. Carfree cities rely on public transport, walking, and cycling for travel as opposed to motor vehicles. Districts where motor vehicles are prohibited are referred to as carfree zones. Carfree city models have gained traction in the second half of the 20th century due to issues with congestion and infrastructure, and proposed environmental and quality of life benefits. Many cities in Asia, Europe, and Africa have carfree areas due to the cities being created before the invention of motor vehicles, while many developing cities in Asia are using the carfree model to modernize their infrastructure.

Francis Eric Knight Britton was an American political scientist and sustainability activist who has lived and worked in Paris, France, since 1969. As the main convenor of The Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative and its various networks, he is well known for promoting integrated public transport, carsharing and bike sharing.

The World Carfree Network (WCN) is an international network that coordinates the actions of car-free advocates from around the world. It is the main hub of the global car-free movement. The World Carfree Network brings together roughly 90-member organisations and many more individuals dedicated to promoting alternatives to car dependence and automobile-based planning at the international level. Working to reduce the human impact on the natural environment while improving the quality of life for all are major goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Road space rationing</span> Travel demand management strategy

Road space rationing, also known as alternate-day travel, driving restriction and no-drive days, is a travel demand management strategy aimed to reduce the negative externalities generated by urban air pollution or peak urban travel demand in excess of available supply or road capacity, through artificially restricting demand by rationing the scarce common good road capacity, especially during the peak periods or during peak pollution events. This objective is achieved by restricting traffic access into an urban cordon area, city center (CBD), or district based upon the last digits of the license number on pre-established days and during certain periods, usually, the peak hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedestrian village</span> Urban planning for mixed-use areas prioritising pedestrians

A pedestrian village is a compact, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood or town with a mixed-use village center. Shared-use lanes for pedestrians and those using bicycles, Segways, wheelchairs, and other small rolling conveyances that do not use internal combustion engines. Generally, these lanes are in front of the houses and businesses, and streets for motor vehicles are always at the rear. Some pedestrian villages might be nearly car-free with cars either hidden below the buildings, or on the boundary of the village. Venice, Italy is essentially a pedestrian village with canals. Other examples of a pedestrian village include Giethoorn village located in the Dutch province of Overijssel, Netherlands, Mont-Tremblant Pedestrian Village located beside Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada, and Culdesac Tempe in Tempe, Arizona.

Bicycology is a UK-based collective that was formed after the 2005 London to Scotland G8 Bike Ride. It is a non-hierarchical non-profit organisation which aims to promote cycling as part of a wider focus on social and environmental sustainability. Bicycology has received funding from Artists Project Earth and is a member organisation of the World Carfree Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vauban, Freiburg</span>

Vauban is a neighbourhood (Stadtteil) to the south of the town centre in Freiburg, Germany. It was built as "a sustainable model district" on the site of a former French military base named after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the 17th century French Marshal who built fortifications in Freiburg while the region was under French rule. Construction began in 1998, and the first two residents arrived in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlanta Streets Alive</span> Open streets car-free ciclovia festival in Georgia, U.S.

Atlanta Streets Alive is a ciclovía held throughout the year in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Ciclovía is Spanish for a temporary closing of the street to automobiles for use by people participating in recreational activity. Organized by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, Atlanta Streets Alive opens streets for people in the city of Atlanta by temporarily closing them to cars to create a whole new healthy, sustainable and vibrant city street experience. People can walk, bike, roller-skate, jog, skip and roll down 3 to 5 miles of major thoroughfares that have been closed to cars throughout Atlanta three or four times a summer. Throughout the route there are activities and examples of tactical urbanism inspired to help citizens envision shared streets. In 2018, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition connected the routes for Atlanta Streets Alive with their street campaigns to drive energy towards demanding more complete and shared streets in the city of Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mia electric</span> French electric vehicle maker active 2011–2013

Mia Electric was a French electric car manufacturer in the 2010s. The company, based in Cerizay, France, designed and built electric vehicles made totally in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paris–Rouen (motor race)</span> Worlds first automobile race

Paris–Rouen, Le Petit Journal Horseless Carriages Contest, was a pioneering city-to-city motoring competition in 1894 which is sometimes described as the world's first competitive motor race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 People's Climate March</span> Climate change protest in New York City

The People's Climate March (PCM) was a large-scale activist event orchestrated by the People's Climate Movement to advocate global action against climate change, which took place on Sunday, September 21, 2014, in New York City, along with a series of companion actions worldwide, many of which also took the name People's Climate March. With an estimated 311,000 participants, the New York event was the largest climate change march in history. Described as "an invitation to change everything," the march was called in May 2014 by the global advocacy human rights group Avaaz and 350.org, the environmental organization founded by writer/activist Bill McKibben, and it was endorsed by "over 1,500 organizations, including many international and national unions, churches, schools and community and environmental justice organizations." It was conceived as a response to the scheduled U.N. Climate Summit of world leaders to take place in New York City two days later, on September 23.

References

  1. "Iranian Women's Cycling Barred by Law or Sharia?". Zamaneh Media. 8 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Alcindor, Yamiche (September 22, 2009). "A Day Without the Detriments of Driving". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2009-09-22.
  3. Wright L. and Montezuma R.: Reclaiming public space "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-03-31. Retrieved 2009-10-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), retrieved 2009-10-03
  4. Thursday: A Breakthrough Strategy for Reducing Car Dependence in Cities Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Opening Index". November 20, 2005. Archived from the original on 2005-11-20.
  6. "Ravage Archief". www.ravagedigitaal.org. Archived from the original on 2021-07-24. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  7. "Nederland een dag zonder auto's, kan dat? - Kleintje Muurkrant". www.stelling.nl. Archived from the original on 2021-07-23. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  8. Berg, Marco van den (June 15, 1999). "Autovrije zondag". Trouw. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  9. POOLMANS, BIJDRAGEN: INA BOT; NANCY (January 8, 1998). "Niet alleen Pippi wil autoloze zondag". Trouw. Retrieved September 26, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. "PvdA en SGP Rijssen denken over autoloze zondag". Archived from the original on 2021-07-23. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  11. "World Carfree Network - World Carfree Day (WCD)". www.worldcarfree.net. Archived from the original on 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  12. "Bilfrie søndage - NORDJYSKE Historiske Avisarkiv" (in Danish). Nordjyske Stiftstidende. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  13. "ARKIV-VIDEO Sådan så gaderne ud på den første bilfrie søndag i Danmark" (in Danish). Danmarks Radio. 8 October 2015. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019. about 90% of energy came from oil
  14. Charles Montgomery (2013). Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN   978-0-374-16823-0.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2008-07-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-04-20. Retrieved 2006-05-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "Carfree day Jakarta". Thejakartapost.com. 2008-06-25. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
  18. "Welcome to Kaohsiung City". July 7, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-07-07.
  19. "°ª¶¯®È¹C¸ê°Tºô". July 7, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-07-07.
  20. "°ª¶¯®È¹C¸ê°Tºô". July 6, 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-07-06.
  21. see map
  22. "自由電子報 – 公車免費搭乘週 高市熄火愛地球". Libertytimes.com.tw. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2011-11-13.
  23. 公車ing Archived 2007-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
  24. "EUROPEAN MOBILITY WEEK 1953 towns and cities participate". mobilityweek.eu. Archived from the original on 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
  25. "Towards Carfree Cities Conference VIII". www.carfreeportland.org. Archived from the original on 2008-03-16. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
  26. "Shift". www.shift2bikes.org. Archived from the original on 2022-09-02. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  27. "De domeinnaam Autovrijezondag.nl is te koop". Domeinnaam Autovrijezondag.nl. Archived from the original on 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
  28. "Haringey News Archive". Archived from the original on September 21, 2008.
  29. World Car-Free Day. 7 October 2009. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12 via YouTube.
  30. "Security Check Required". Facebook . Archived from the original on 2022-09-26. Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  31. "Pasig City". www.pasigcity.gov.ph. Archived from the original on 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  32. raahgiridays.com
  33. "Raahgiri Day - Gurgaon, India". 20 February 2014. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  34. "'Raahgiri Day' to be held in Noida for the first time on Feb 3". Business Standard India. Press Trust of India. 31 January 2019. Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  35. "All-blue skies in Paris as city centre goes car-free for first time". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2016-12-07. Retrieved 2016-12-11.
  36. hermes (17 February 2016). "Mass events to kick off first car-free Sunday in heart of city". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  37. "London roads to close for Car Free Day". BBC News. September 20, 2019. Archived from the original on October 2, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2019.
  38. "Commentary: Car Free Day chaotic, but provides free civic space". The Jakarta Post. Archived from the original on 2018-09-27. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  39. Atthakor, Ploenpote (24 September 2018). "Bangkok's car-free day is mere lip service" (Opinion). Bangkok Post. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  40. Wattanasukchai, Sirinya (27 September 2018). "City adopts old ruse to take over arts centre" (Opinion). Bangkok Post. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
  41. Espectador, El (March 22, 2020). "ELESPECTADOR.COM". ELESPECTADOR.COM. Archived from the original on June 14, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  42. 1994 CFDC Archived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
  43. Step out of your cars to embrace your cities | Cities Now Archived September 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  44. "Yom Kippur, The Day When Israel Goes Car Free". www.amusingplanet.com. Archived from the original on 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  45. "Air pollution levels plunge 99% in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv over Yom Kippur". The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-09-19.