Advocacy & Safety - Thursday is car free day....

here is what my city ( Winnipeg) is doing. www.resourceconservation.mb.ca/carfreeindex.html

http://www.resourceconservation.mb.ca/carfree/index.html

Gee, I don't think we have a car free day in the US.

Gee, I don't think we have a car free day in the US.

Check out:
http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/events.php

There's even one in my home town!

Check out:
http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/events.php

There's even one in my home town!

A few cities in the US... Well perhaps more will catch on.

I always envisioned a car free day back in the 70's gas shortages... it had already come to odd and even days for gas (based on your license plate number). To me it was only a matter of time before there would be rotating days of no driving... never happened though.

Too bad.

Hoping St. Louis will get in on the action. We shall see. Here is an interesting movie: . Link here:"The End of Suburbia" (http://www.endofsuburbia.com/previews.htm) . On the site there is a "Screenings" link that shows you all the places they are showing it. I found one on Nov. 30th for St. Louis!

Keep Cycling,

I ride a bike...not another car lemming!

I don't know about car free day, but there's a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday for a road that's been closed for about a year where they've finally put in a nice bike lane. We're all supposed to show up to show our support for the bike lane, but I'm afraid I'll alreayy be at work sitting in my dreaded weekly staff meeting when that happens.

About 8 blocks downtown Montreal will be closed to cars on Thurs. I will be riding my bike that day since the weather forecast is good, but I wont be going within a mile of that area.

Ottawa's car free day (from the city's web site):
http://ottawa.ca/city_services/environment/car_free_en.shtml

"Car Free Day focuses attention on what the City and our residents can do to reduce our reliance on cars as a mode of transportation."

Only one in the States remotely near New England is Philadelphia PA, and that one comes up with a "Domains for sign" page when you click it... :(

They had a car free day here last august promoted by the board of health, nobody paid a blind bit of notice :rolleyes:
I've read plans for another which probably won't work either. Unrelated to the government, the idea is to not use any fuel on a particular day even if it means phoning in sick for work. This should in return hit the government through loss of taxes, impact on the markets etc. making them lower the tax.
Can't see it working myself but I could happily leave my car at home for a day or two.

About 8 blocks downtown Montreal will be closed to cars on Thurs. I will be riding my bike that day since the weather forecast is good, but I wont be going within a mile of that area.

I love this idea. Burlington, VT has a street closed to traffic it is one of the most pleasant parts of the city. When will cities figure out that No Cars is Good for Commerce and the City?

I've read plans for another which probably won't work either. Unrelated to the government, the idea is to not use any fuel on a particular day even if it means phoning in sick for work. This should in return hit the government through loss of taxes, impact on the markets etc. making them lower the tax. Can't see it working myself but I could happily leave my car at home for a day or two.
Are you sure you're not thinking about that email chain letter (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_no_gas_sep_1st.htm) that goes around every so often, imploring people not to buy gas on such-and-such a day? It's a completely stupid idea, since anyone who might otherwise have filled up that day is just going to fill up the next day instead. The market will not even notice this (especially if it already is prepared for it), and tax revenues are not evaluated and reacted to daily. The only thing that will lower prices is sustained lower usage, also known as "supply and demand".

If a car-free day is about trying to make people think a different way about their automobile usage, or even just publicize alternatives, then I'm all for it. But I would have a hard time taking seriously any effort that claims it wil have some kind of dramatic short-term effect such as you describe.

http://www.decaturga.com/cgs_citysvcs_ced_carfreeday.aspx

Are you sure you're not thinking about that email chain letter (http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_no_gas_sep_1st.htm) that goes around every so often, imploring people not to buy gas on such-and-such a day? It's a completely stupid idea, since anyone who might otherwise have filled up that day is just going to fill up the next day instead. The market will not even notice this (especially if it already is prepared for it), and tax revenues are not evaluated and reacted to daily. The only thing that will lower prices is sustained lower usage, also known as "supply and demand".

If a car-free day is about trying to make people think a different way about their automobile usage, or even just publicize alternatives, then I'm all for it. But I would have a hard time taking seriously any effort that claims it wil have some kind of dramatic short-term effect such as you describe.

It's along the same limes as the old chain mails but the bright idea this time is for everybody not to use their cars on a certain day.
The sad thing is it does not harm the Oil Companies, selling fuel to the general public is not their core business. Their core business is the other products that they produce from Oil, like plastics etc. Also when it comes to selling oil, the big market for them is the large industrial clients not the motorist.
What this sort of protest will do is hurt the small retailer, not so much the supermarkets who can run them as loss if need be, but the independants, who you will have noticed have been quietly shutting doors as they are squeezed out of the market which has becomes less profitable.
The government might notice but considering it's the haulage, transportation companies etc. rather than the private car driver that use the majority of the fuel, unless these also join (which is very unlikely) it will be like a pebble in the ocean.

Thanks for the correction EricDJ

Only one in the States remotely near New England is Philadelphia PA, and that one comes up with a "Domains for sign" page when you click it... :(
Well you can read aboutat a well balanced European program instead.

http://www.mobilityweek-europe.org/page.php?page=themes_cycling&lang=en

For special fun/insight read the Nota Bene about the event: "Please do not distribute bicycle helmets for free; it misinforms and confuses the public about road safety and cycling, making cycling appear as a dangerous activity. On the contrary, cycling is healthy, the roads are made safer and traffic is reduced."

Hoping St. Louis will get in on the action. We shall see. Here is an interesting movie: . Link here:"The End of Suburbia" (http://www.endofsuburbia.com/previews.htm) . On the site there is a "Screenings" link that shows you all the places they are showing it. I found one on Nov. 30th for St. Louis!

Keep Cycling,

I ride a bike...not another car lemming!
I've seen the movie, excellent, has Kunstler w/ comments. Check for Bit unknow torrent!

Today was carfree for me, so was last year, and the year before that.

there's one a couple of blocks from where i work in oakland, i'll drop by and check it out..

For what it is worth, this is what is going on in my area, focused around the university, sponsored by the alternative transportatin club there.
http://www.humboldt.edu/~alttrans/car_free_day/
They cut off part of the campus roads to cars, (except for emergency and disabled student vehicles,) which is nice. Then people draw on the road with pastels. They are also reenvisioining parking spaces, aswering the question, what would you do wiht this space other than park a car in it? pitch a tent? plant a garden? build a sculpture? However, because there is not enough parking spaces for all the cars on campus anyway, they are doing these projects on non actual parking spaces. I find this funny.
Someone who worked for parking services told me that a good portion of the problem is students in the dorms who drive their cars closer to class. This is silly, as it is an absurdly small campus and the school has a strong emphasis on natural resource type majors. So, the obvious solution is that they are going to build a huge new parking structure, raising fees to pay for it. arghh. Of course, we do not have enough bike racks nor are they in good condition. Oh, well, at least I will get a free breakfast.

The Duke University bike advocacy group is sponsoring an escorted ride from East Campus through Durham to West Campus:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=139004

For some reason Pittsburgh's car free day was July 23.
http://www.carfreepittsburgh.org/proclamation.jpg

But I'll be out with my bike on carfree day today.

On my ride to work today I saw 72 bicycles. 11 on the first 9 km going towards downtown, 44 on the next 6 km crossing the river, and 17 on the last 12 km going through the South Shore suburbs. The Jacques Cartier bridge was packed with cars on the three lanes going in to town, and a fair number on the two lanes going out. It was much more carfree on Monday when a protester climbed onto the bridge superstructure - the police closed the bridge to motor traffic all day.

In Vancouver, they're closing Water Street (a touristy cobblestone affair in the old part of the city) to have performers and booths and such. I often cycle it on my way home, but today, I probably won't even be able to get through there. I think this "Car-Free Day" will be lost in the big assortment of random "street festivals" we have every year. Talk about a small step in bike advocacy.

One of my motorist co-workers observed that Car-Free Day would be "the perfect day to drive to work, since there might be less traffic." Funny in a sad, fatalistic way.

In Madison: http://www.carfreechallenge.com/

Definitely saw more bikers about this morning. How about ya'll?