Car-free days
Europeans ditched their cars last month. Well, almost.
Cities across Europe have just taken part in Mobility Week where local authorities have been encouraging citizens to leave their cars behind and explore other, more environmentally-friendly modes of transport.
The city of Gothenburg in Sweden worked with 200 employers to encourage staff to ditch their cars for their daily commute. Vilnius in Lithuania got kids and teachers on their bikes for the school run, and Bologna charmed residents with a cycling tour combined with ice cream tasting.
Back in Belgium, the cities clearly have their cycling fans seeing that thousands of bikers took to the streets on car-free Sunday two weeks ago.
The benefits of a world without cars, even for just one day, include a sharp drop in the levels of air pollutants (last year’s car-free day saw a carbon monoxide level 48 times below that of a normal Sunday in the tunnels in Brussels), fewer deaths on the roads, and less noise pollution.
Maybe more regular car-free days where a sense of joie de vivre descends on the cities of Europe will someday make the ideal of Europeans ditching their cars come true.
Source: The Bulletin
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Comments
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I totally agree. This is an excellent move and will only last for a day. People will be encourage to use public transportation. I'm willing to leave my <a href="http://www.car-stuff.com/toyotaparts.htm">toyota parts</a> car in my garage and use the transportation system.
cyclist menace
I took the opportunity of the car free day to also enjoy the open monument/patrimoine sunday.
All I could tell was that the roads were more dangerous than usual - pedestrians still relegated to the pavements and faced with hoards of cyclists ignoring all traffic rules (red lights? pedestrian crossings?) and travelling in groups it was like trying to dodge swarms of bees.
Such an excellent idea! Shame about the bikes.
Loved it
Families out on their bikes, people getting talking to each other, peaceful streets, it was great. If every Sunday was like that, it'd be amazing.
Plus, I have never seen Brussels centre so busy on a Sunday - small businesses should be making the most of the extra customers!
Too many cars
My family and I cycled into Brussels on car-free Sunday, and we were absolutely outraged by the number of idiotic car drivers who were clearly ignoring the car-free rule. They were invariably white knuckled at the wheel, glaring impatiently at the mass of cyclists, who in turn were glaring back... Said cars were also speeding, needless to say, extremely dangerous with so many young kids cycling - but let's be honest, road safety has never been top of Belgium's agenda (it's not even on the agenda from what I have seen). We did see one speeding car pulled up just by Montgomery (most pleasing) by the police, and of course the offending driver was shrugging shoulders and playing dumb (not much of a stretch)! I have to disagree with Kenneth's comments about car-free Sunday costing companies money though, because lets face it, there is virtually nothing open in Belgium on a Sunday anyway!
Student who hates Belgium
It was very annoying and served no propose to have the roads shut down for a day. This is why they have bike pathes for, or the lack there of in this backwards country. Not only did this day cost the lost companies money, but it's enviromental propose was totally defeated by the fact people who live in the cities would drive anyways if they had to go somewhere outside the city. This day only caused more traffic and people waiting in trafficjams. Also the effect on the enviromental was totally cancelled out by the other countries who have more common sense to just build pathes for bikes.
Please think more
Once again, I read a short piece that has been written in total isolation and without any commonsense. I admit that it was nice to take my child for a walk with less risk than normal of being hit by a speeding car but that's by-the-by. First, I drove more on Saturday to get the jobs done - I suspect many others did the same so there's prob very little real savings. Secondly, people will not ditch there cars - unless we stop making them....oh but there's a problem as it will affect jobs. It's crazy to have car scrappage schemes in Germany and the UK .... tax advantages in Belgium for companies offering staff corporate cars!! Remember when the Belgium govt saved jobs by negotiating with VW some years back. There's no sense in these (carless) days as long as we are driven solely by economics. Then of course there is the growth in the electronics industry - which sucks increasingly large amounts of energy from the national grids - all the time supported by the European institutions and their member states. Until policy is sensible, let's not even bother pretending.