CAR-FREE MONTH!
World Car Free Day
Press Releases for Car-Free Day/Month:
INTERNATIONAL: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Carfree.com Contact: J.H. Crawford 14 September 2000 +31 20 638 6057 September 21 is World Car-Free Day: Where is the USA? Except for Boulder, Colorado, the USA and Canada are observing World Carfree Day in the breach. While more than 700 cities around the globe are observing, even celebrating, World Carfree Day, the USA and Canada are studiously ignoring it, even in the face of skyrocketing oil prices and grave concerns about energy supplies for the coming winter. The EU is actually holding their carfree day on the 22nd, while for some odd reason the Netherlands is waiting until the 24th. Whichever day, you pick, you'll find little to mark its passing in the USA and Canada. The future for continued automobility on the scale to which we have grown accustomed is not rosy. Oil production is not ever going to increase substantially above its current very high level, yet demand continues to rise even in the face of concerns about global warming caused by burning fossil fuels. Now we are at the peak of global oil production, or so close to it as not to matter. A carfree day gives the public a chance to experience the changes that occur in a city when the traffic disappears. The improvement in the quality of life is large, more than offsetting the loss of convenience of being able to drive everywhere. Over the long term, urban public transport can easily replace the mobility lost as cars are removed from cities. The social, ecological, and economic costs of shared service are far lower than even the current low cost of driving. Given that we are eventually going to have to reduce our level of driving anyway, the carfree day is a wonderful opportunity to show the public the good effects that this brings with it. The sooner we start making the change to carfree cities, the longer we will have to accomplish this difficult task, and the less painful will be the economic dislocations that must follow the end of cheap oil. Why, then, has the USA simply decided not to join World Carfree Day? -30- For more information on carfree cities, visit http://www.carfree.com/ See also _Carfree Cities_ by J.H. Crawford (International Books, 2000) Toolkit for organizers: -AT-World CarFree: http://www.EcoPlan.org/CarFreeDay ### J.H. Crawford Carfree Cities postmaster-AT-carfree.com Carfree.com LOCAL: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jason Meggs September 4, 2000 Page: 510/720-2818 SEPTEMBER IS CAR-FREE MONTH September 21 is International Car-Free Day Activists plan first annual Car-Free Month full of events, actions, and teach-ins to "celebrate and support those who live car-free, and to remember those who have been disabled or have lost their lives to the automobile". A vibrant and diverse international movement is gathering steam to significantly reduce automobile use and abuse. From the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia who plans to eliminate automobile use from his city by 2015, to the much-celebrated landmark text, _Carfree_Cities_ by J.H. Crawford (2000), to the global Critical Mass movement which was born in San Francisco eight years ago this month, a common passion is emerging for a new (but very traditional) way of life "free from the danger, noise and pollution of the automobile". In the Bay Area, events include teach-ins (e.g., a book reading by "Divorce Your Car!" author Kathie Alvord and an outdoor potluck with presentations) to actions (e.g., biking the Bay Bridge, Reclaim the Streets, and protests on Car-Free Day) to memorials (e.g., September 13 is the 101st anniversary of the first person killed by automobile). Car-Free Month aims to honor those who have the principles to make their own way, traveling by the healthier modes of walking, bicycling or using public transit. These heroes need to be recognized and our society needs to begin to treat such individuals with much deserved respect, and encourage others to do the same. It is possible to live without a car, but it has become incredibly hostile to do so. The powerful automobile lobbies have seen to it that alternative transportation options in this county are the worst in the developed world, even as we pour ever larger subsidies into creating an unsustainable automobile-only society that denies mobility, destroys the social fabric of neighborhoods, creates massive extinction and environmental catastrophe including global climate change, and has killed more U.S. citizens than all this country's wars. In California, bicyclists and pedestrians suffer 25% of traffic fatalities (due to automobiles), and make up well over 10% of all trips (by conservative estimates) yet receive less than 1% of our transportation dollars. Governor Gray Davis recently signed the largest transportation package in California's history, with exactly ZERO for bicyclists despite a tremendous public outcry. In addition, Davis slashed 10 of 14 Caltrans Bicycle Coordinators which that had been approved by both the assembly and the senate. Advocates are holding their breath this month hoping Davis will not veto three primary bills before him. Complete list of events at http://www.bclu.org/
Back to the Bike the Bridge! Coalition.
