Car free day

 Last Saturday, 22 September 2012 was the world car-free day. People, communities, cities and countries from around the world organise events to celebrate and promote sustainable mobility.

Gratz, Austria

 While the idea of restricting car access to specific streets or parts of the city even for just a few hours of a single day per year is pretty old, it was back at 1994 that a formal world day started to be organised. In 2000 the European Commission adopted the idea and funded the whole project under the title “In town without my car”. The campaign was a huge success not only in Europe but also in other countries. Since 2002 cities in Europe celebrate the “European Mobility Week” an annual event in September around the "In town without my car!" day. By 2008 more than 2100 local governments from 39 countries participated either in the single day celebration or the whole mobility week.

The first Australian Car Free Day was held in the City of Fremantle on 29 November 2000. Fremantle tried again on 2001 and 2002 organising the “Shed your car day”. Other cities in Australia tried to organise similar events but without coordination amongst them and not much success.

Pedestrians, bicycles, public transit and other forms of sustainable transportation are encouraged on these days. People have tolerated too long congestion, air pollution and all other side effects of car traffic in the cities.

As the theme and logo of this year’s European Mobility Week says “Do the right mix”.

At the same time that neoliberal policies and austerity measures deepen the economic crisis in Europe, 

extending it into a social crisis, there are still a few lessons that we can learn from their practices towards a new culture in urban mobility.

European Mobility Week

The European Mobility Week participation report came out a few days ago with interesting facts about this top European action on promoting sustainable mobility. European Mobility Week and the Car-Free Day are major awareness raising campaigns aiming at sensibilising citizens to the use of public transport, cycling, walking and at encouraging European cities to promote these modes of transport and to invest in the new necessary infrastructures.

 This year 2.268 cities participated with an estimated population of more than 156 million people. The tenth anniversary edition of the European Mobility Week set a new record again in terms of participation – the sixth consecutive one!

As in the previous year, the cities mainly focussed on:

•       Mobility management, such as launching awareness-raising campaigns, elaborating educational materials, or developing urban mobility plans.
•       Accessibility, such as lowering and enlarging pavements, removing architectonic barriers, or creating wheelchair ramps.
•       New or improved bicycle facilities, with enhancements to both bicycle networks and facilities such as bicycle stands in public areas.

Even though it is a European event, a lot of cities from countries outside Europe participated: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Taiwan, USA where amongst them. Unfortunately no city from Australia participated in this promotional event. Let’s hope next year Gold Coast will be the first Australia city to support Mobility Week.