World Car Free Day on Saturday:

Towards greener cities, happier lives

By Pramod DE SILVA

If you have a car, I know how attached to it you could be. It is a vital part of your life. It takes you places, physically and figuratively. It is one of those almost indispensable conveniences of modern life.

Pedestrians take over Vancouver streets on Car Free Day

Can you bear the thought of parting with it, at least for one day? It will be very hard, no doubt, but just imagine the number of litres of fuel you could save. Imagine the effect on the environment if hundreds of cars are kept at home instead of being driven, at least for one day. Imagine the health benefits of walking or cycling a bit. Can you take up the challenge of leaving your car at home?

This is the idea behind World Car Free Day, which will be celebrated in most countries and cities around the world on September 22. However, the date can vary between September 10 and 22, considering that the World Mobility Week also falls within the same period. The Car Free Day has become a celebration of life sans the car and moreover, its success around the world has proven that life can go on without cars, for one day at least.

Sustainable transportation

The Car Free Day encourages people to support sustainable transportation. Those who participate in it not only save money, but also reduce their carbon footprint and improve air quality. “As the climate heats up, World Car Free Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and place the onus on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile,” says the organiser, the World Car Free Network which has celebrated the event annually since 2000.

Roads are closed to traffic (except for buses and trams) and residents and visitors are encouraged to walk around, re-discovering the cities they love. They can stop for a while, relax, eat an ice-cream and chat with others. It is sheer bliss without blaring horns, traffic noise, road rage and other ills of the road traffic network.

Have to go to work? You are encouraged to board a bus or a train. If you live near a river, you may catch a boat. If you are a bit adventurous, you can hop on a bicycle and ride to work. Public transport puts less strain on traffic and the environment. Governments must build better public transport systems to veer people away from private transport (cars).

It is also cheaper, even if you consider travelling in an air-conditioned bus. Such comforts are essential to attract the motorists in any case.

Events such as Car Free Day give motorists an ideal opportunity to try out public transport. If it is good enough, at least one out of 10 private motorists may be persuaded to give up his or her set of wheels for more than one day. The Car Free Day will only be successful if at least a few participants keep their cars at home for more than one day. It is time that this concept is introduced to Sri Lanka, which is a net importer of oil. Traffic jams on our congested roads waste of a massive quantity of fuel.

No parking worries

In any case, it is always better to take the bus or the train for shorter distances and your parking worries are also taken care of. Most cities are now demarcating bus lanes where buses can ply even in the opposite direction of oncoming traffic – a much better alternative to being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Even with the air-conditioner on, it is such a tedious exercise.

In the meantime, there should be greater focus on making cities more friendly towards cyclists and pedestrians. Here in Colombo, the Independence Square serves as a model for a walking and cycling friendly zone. Although primarily designed as an exercise and recreation area, it shows how a city can integrate pedestrian walkways and cycling paths to its overall transport plans. We hope that Colombo would get more zones of this nature, which may ultimately be integrated fully with the roadway system.

Provincial Councils and local bodies in each area must be encouraged to come up with such designs to make their cities and towns more attractive to those who prefer to walk or cycle. Both these modes of transport usually do not cost a cent, apart from the investment on the bicycle and safety gear. It is also more healthy.

In fact, many countries grade their cities on their friendliness towards cyclists and pedestrians. In the US, the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) and the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, grade cities as ‘Walk Friendly Communities’. (The PBIC is an organisation administered by the University of North Carolina and supported by the Federal Department of Transportation.)

According to the organisations, their program is “designed to encourage the adoption of policies and practices that move a community toward more walkability, even if those policies are forward-looking and not yet resulting in superior or improved performance”. There are 33 cities and towns in the US that have earned the designation at one level or another, with Seattle the only one so far with the highest level ‘platinum’ rating. Walking-friendly Seattle is a model worthy of studying and emulation for cities in other parts of the world.

Motorised transport has revolutionised our lives and our world. There is no doubt about it. Thanks to the car, a journey that used to take days now takes only hours.

However, there is a notion, mostly correct, that we are too reliant on the car and its variants. Most of us drive even to the nearest junction to buy a newspaper or a food parcel when we can just walk there in 10 minutes.

The world has more cars than it needs. If at least some of them can remain in garages, the world will be a much better place to live in.

The World Car Free Day aims to get us there one day.