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Every year around the 22nd of September, cities across the world celebrate World Car-Free Days which encourages car owners to travel without personal vehicles by either walking or cycling. The purpose of this is to highlight the benefits of going car-free, the major one being a healthier environment.
Originally started to showcase how congested cars make our roads and to envision a world without cars, Car-Free Day is now celebrated in European towns for a week under the slogan of #MobilityWeek. They participate in this campaign year after year to show their commitment to revolutionizing the transit system to be clean and sustainable. Some great trends have been generated from these celebrations over the years - races for alternative-energy powered vehicles in Budapest, horse-riding in São Paulo, street picnics in Vienna, running in Jakarta.
Campaigners stress how much power people have started giving to their cars, allowing them to take the focus as cities are built with transportation in mind. This leaves little to no space for pedestrians or parks, highlighting how the human being has become an automaton. Car-free days give the opportunity to highlight this great disparity and an opportunity to come up with alternative systems that are environmentally friendly as well as healthy for us.
Several reports by the United Nations highlight the high level of damage that cars are doing to the environment, being the main source of air pollution which ends up killing millions of people annually. Vehicles are also the fastest growing source of fossil fuel emissions, causing disastrous effects to the climate.
Going Car-free has shown results immediately. In September of 2015, Paris held its first "journée sans voiture" (day without a car) which was found to reduce exhaust emissions by 40 per cent.
Maybe your town or city may not be joining in for World Car-free Day, but you can do it on your own. Skip taking out your car for a short trip to the store and take a nice walk. After all, a little goes a long way.
