Advocacy & Safety - International Carfree Days

Is this going on in your area of the world? Here in Portland we just had a local carfree day festival on Sunday, but that's all I know of around here. I've read that Europe is taking this a lot more seriously than us in the U.S.
Any experiences?


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International Car Free Days

September 13-26, 2003

Hundreds of cities around the world will be entirely car free in their core areas on this day. "In town without my car" is the official theme statement set up through government sponsorship in the European Union.

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A small downtown area was blocked to cars outside rush hour (10 am - 3:30 pm) in Montreal. There were people on foot, bike and those two-wheel thing (???) parading in the streets. It's only symbolic but it shows that things are changing (hopefully). I wished they blocked a larger area for longer period and try to make something out of it. Experimenting, finding solutions, not just a show. A single event makes the news but it is quickly forgotten. Delivery trucks were blocked too, I believe, and that doesn't make sense, IMO.

Nothing here.

I'm curious to hear from the Europeans who frequent the boards to see what they did.


Any people from Europe that can tell us how International car free day was celebrated in their town/country?

I commute by bike every day to work during the week and funnily (in a sad way) enough, neither I, nor any of my immediate coworkers heard anything about this "event" in Portland. . . it must have been well publicized :confused:.

On the east coast of Canada, cyclists ride on busy streets during rush hour, disturbing the stressed out motorists. This is great because we'll be fleeing for our lives for the next month or so, as motorists' hate turns on cyclists.:rolleyes:

Originally posted by ChezJfrey
I commute by bike every day to work during the week and funnily (in a sad way) enough, neither I, nor any of my immediate coworkers heard anything about this "event" in Portland. . . it must have been well publicized :confused:.

The Car Free Day Street Fair in Portland was on Sunday 9/21; I also led two morning commute rides to downtown Portland via SE Hawthorne Boulevard on Monday morning. The street fair was very well publicized beginning about one month before the event,with flyers and leaflets all over town, on KBOO radio 90.7 FM, in the Bicycle Transportation Alliance's print newsletter and email digest, on the Shift web site and in the Shift Bike Bulletin, on the City Dept. of Transportation's web site, on the Portland Indy Media web site, at Shift's Breakfast on the Bridges on Friday 9/19, and in the Sunday Oregonian on 9/21; the commute ride was a later addition, but was also pretty well publicized at several of the above locations, and at the fair on Sunday.

If you live in Portland and are a regular bike commuter, you really should at least belong to the BTA and/or be on the Shift list, so you add to the collective membership and strenth of these advocacy groups, and you'll hear about events like Car Free Day beforehand.

http://www.bta4bikes.org/index.html
http://www.shift2bikes.org/
http://www.communitycyclingcenter.org/
http://www.trans.ci.portland.or.us/Bicycles/default.htm

Originally posted by Resident
On the east coast of Canada, cyclists ride on busy streets during rush hour, disturbing the stressed out motorists. This is great because we'll be fleeing for our lives for the next month or so, as motorists' hate turns on cyclists.:rolleyes:

Sounds like you're a motorist first and a cyclist second. I find that group arterial rides are a great way to educate motorists to share the road, and fills an important need, since the state is generally doing little or nothing to provide this sort of education to motorists...

Had one here in Edinburgh on Sunday. My wife and I rode in. Not terribly well supported or publicised and certainly not as big as last year.

Montreal had car-free-lite earlier this week, they closed 1 major downtown street for 10 blocks (and its cross streets for the block around it) from 10h30 to 3h30 so it was closed for neither of the rush hours. But to my surprise, the surrounding streets had less traffic than a normal day. Its hard to tell how many people actually took alternative transportation. It seems a lot of companies on that high street simply delayed delivery. Hopefully next year we will get a more reasonable amount of downtown closed.

The only chance of having a car free day in NJ is if somehow all at the same time, 18 wheelers jackknifed at every entrence ramp to the major highway. :mad:

But then again, I take MTB trails to work most of the time so in essense, maybe it is car free, at least for me.

Jay

I think "great american car-outs" (a play on great american smoke outs) are a fine idea. People flock to the pedestrian areas, and once they get a taste of not using their cars to get around, and walking, it becomes addictive.

I think it would be a great idea have permanent car-free zones, and gradually expand them as they become more popular. It would be a great way to reduce the habit of using your car to go everywhere.

roughstuff

In 1995, I was in Tel Aviv during Yom Kippur (the Jewish day of atonement). This is one of the highest holy days for the Jewish faith. On that day no one works, drives, cooks, etc. There are many secular Jews in Tel Aviv but no-one drives. The whole city is out in the streets as pedistrians or cyclists. It was amazing,

Interestingly enough I was there for 6 weeks and commuted to my office by bike. I used a mountain bike because cabbies were so dangerous that you had to be able to curb hop and get on the sidewalk on a moments notice. Cabbies would actually cut through sidewalks to get through a light, around a corner, etc.
/Duncan

Originally posted by randya
...The street fair was very well publicized beginning about one month before the event,with flyers and leaflets all over town, on KBOO radio 90.7 FM, in the Bicycle Transportation Alliance's print newsletter and email digest, on the Shift web site and in the Shift Bike Bulletin, on the City Dept. of Transportation's web site, on the Portland Indy Media web site, at Shift's Breakfast on the Bridges on Friday 9/19, and in the Sunday Oregonian on 9/21...

And this is why most people (including myself and those I queried) never heard a thing about it. The media you mentioned has such a narrow audience. The only major publication you mentioned, The Oregonian, published a story the day of the event. This seems a bit late to garner participation.

Car-free day was Monday the 22nd Sep in Finland. Don't know about other cities, but here cars could not get to the very core area of Helsinki all day. Also the local public transportation system offered free rides (ride all day with one ticket, change vehicles as many times as you please). I do not know how much effect it had, but the organisers did get a lot of favorable media coverage both in press and in tv.

It might have been a coincidence, but further up in Central Finland the local road administration chose this exact day to open up a new stretch of highway. Bad timing, IMO.

--J

Originally posted by ChezJfrey
And this is why most people (including myself and those I queried) never heard a thing about it. The media you mentioned has such a narrow audience. The only major publication you mentioned, The Oregonian, published a story the day of the event. This seems a bit late to garner participation.

What can I say? Press releases were issued. It's not up to me or the other organizers of this event to determine whether a mainstream media outlet such as a network TV or radio station picks this story up and either announces it or makes a headline story out of it -- remember, much of their revenue comes from ads paid for by manufacturers of motor vehicles. As far as they are concerned, this was a non-event, 'cause they didn't cover it when it was happening, either.

Like I said in my previous post, if you're interested in knowing about events like this, get a BTA membership, that's pretty mainstream, and it supports all things having to do with bicycling in Oregon. And if you don't like the fact that the mainstream media didn't cover this event, quit whining about it and do something constructive for change, instead.

BTW, attendence at the event was very good and there was a steady stream of new people arriving all afternoon long, so some people ARE paying attention...

I must have time warped past that day as I never saw or heard a single thing about International Car Free Day.:crash:

CHEERS.

Mark

oh man...

I rode (as normal) on Monday (which was carfree day here in Switzerland too) then took our car to work on Tuesday, as I was needing to worka worka worka, and wanted to ensure I could get home on time for my piano lesson at 18:00.

Sure enough...a sub-30 minute commute by bicycle turned out to be a 1 hour excercise in frustration as I showed up in time to wish my piano teacher a happy vacation (18:30...sigh)

The more I take the train, the more I take my car, the more I like <backspace><backspace><backspace>ove my bike.

ride safely,
Tom

Everday is carfree day for me. :D

Originally posted by randya
Sounds like you're a motorist first and a cyclist second. I find that group arterial rides are a great way to educate motorists to share the road, and fills an important need, since the state is generally doing little or nothing to provide this sort of education to motorists...

Actually, I'm in my late thirties and have NEVER owned a car. The city of Halifax, NS is based around the Citadel Hill (a star-shaped military fortress). The roads circle this hill, and sprawl out in numerous directions. It doesn't help that there's also a feeder rotary only a few kms away. So, driving here is stressful enough for the motorists. Add some cyclists, mix, and watch the tempers fly...:crash:

sorry to say that here in southern German it was hardly noticed.

i heard about it a few weeks ago (through the web) and checked and my "home" city Munich did not meet the top level (had to close of the center to cars + a few other things) and was only a "supporting" city or whatever they called it (not sure the German translation) and the only thing i saw was on the Munich Transit page they had a blurb about how riding the transit was supporting international car-free day. otherwise i didn't see or hear a thing.

But i must admit on Monday i had to work in Stuttgart so i left Munich on a 6:30am train. Stuttgart, according to the German website i found DID meet the top-level requirements, but Monday evening after work i saw a ton of cars in the city (i didn't have my bike, so went for a 1hr run up the hills and took the streetcar back to the hotel) and again no signs or parades or anything out of the ordinary. (Stuttgart may have qualified without doing anything as they have like a 2-block by 6-block no-car pedestrian zone downtown - i hung out there and ate at a cafe/pizzeria)

anyway, it's possible i missed something as i was on the train and then in the office, but sadly here it looks like it was virtually unknown (none of my German friends even heard of it and i never saw a single sign or promotion or anything in the news -- ok, i don't watch the news or the tube that much)

The more I take the train, the more I take my car, the more I like <backspace><backspace><backspace>love my bike.

i think that describes me too. with the bike i am almost never late (ok, yesterday i had a chain break and it took 10 minutes to repair, but no regular 30 minute or 1 hr delays)

and driving in the city in traffic i just won't do anymore. busses suck as they are subject to auto traffic delays. the subway and trains are decent to ride but they are sometimes late... the bike as primary transit with the train for backup and long distance and the car (borrow from the girlfriend or rent) as a last resort for far-away places where the train doesn't go --- that's my method and i love it!

Nope...Very little perceivable notice was taken in carfree day around here.

I listened to the local radio station local topics show in the morning and the front man was doing his best to encourage motorists to leave their vehicles at home "just for one day". Use public transport or any other alternitave means.

But the school run and town centre traffic was as busy as any other day.

I think we should forget about these set aside days for the likes of,no car day.no smoking day etc. as no one in the habit of such usage takes or wants to deprive themselves, even for one day.

It's actually Ride to Work day here on the Gold Coast tomorrow.

There has been a lot of discussion here about the day: apparently many people left their cars home and took public transportation instead, encouraged by the free rides. The result: all buses, trams and trains were full to capacity and then some. I have heard many people complaining about how "poorly organised" the event was, how difficult it was to get to work etc etc. Basically the carfree day just managed to reinforce their bias against public transportation. :(

I do not think many people tried bike commuting that day, because it would take some advance planning, and the weather was not particularly good. It seems I do not have to worry about rush hour in bike path anytime soon.

--J