Celebrate A Day Without Cars! (9/22)

The theme of this year's World Carfree Day is "Street Conversions." The value of human-scaled carfree areas is increasingly appreciated, both among urbanists and the general public. Yet how can we transform existing areas to create lively people-oriented spaces free of traffic?

The principle is that street space used to be for both transport and human interaction. But with the arrival of the automobile, street space has become monopolised by cars and other vehicles, resulting in a loss of community and livability.

We are asking participants to design carfree spaces from formerly car-oriented spaces, in three categories:

1. an on-street parking space (2.4 x 6 m)

2. a street segment of 100 m in length, with a width of 20 m from building to building

3. an intersection, including the street space that extends out 20 m in each of the four directions (street widths building to building: 20 m)

http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/street-conversion.php

Carbusters Magazine first called for a World Carfree Day on September 22, 2000. Today Sept. 22 is celebrated in 1,500 cities in 40 countries with carfree festivals, bicycle demonstrations, street closures and permanent changes to make cities more environmentally and socially sustainable. Each year in late September, streets are closed to cars and opened to children’s games, neighborhood parties, street theater and outdoor cafes, allowing people to see their cities the way they could be with fewer cars.

World Carfree Network’s activities this September will specifically focus on street conversions. The network's member groups all over the world will be working with municipalities to convert streets, intersections and parking areas into spaces for people to use for recreation, commerce, social life and education. Dreams of healthier, cleaner and more sociable communities will be made tangible for a day, and plans for permanent changes to strengthen walking, cycling and public transport will be unveiled in numerous of cities.

On Sept 22, World Carfree Network (WCN) will reveal the results of its international Street Conversion Competition at the Towards Carfree Cities Conference in Bogotá, Colombia. The competition will compare blueprints from top professional and citizen urban designers throughout the world, depicting ideas for converting car-oriented spaces into multi-use, carfree urban spaces. The winning designs will be those that successfully concentrate destinations, reduce travel needs, create a sense of place and community, minimize the amount of space devoted solely to transport, use space efficiently and increase the quality of life. The competition will be judged by a panel of conference participants.

Other planned events range from educational carfree day events in Seoul, South Korea to a street fair in Portland, Oregon, which will convert a small central street into an area for art, music and games. As many as 500 cities around the world will hold Critical Mass bicycle rides, which are cycling celebrations directed by participants. Budapest, Hungary has previously seen upwards of 30,000 cyclists participating in the ride and this year the city is set to break records yet again. World Carfree Day also coincides with the European Commission’s Mobility Week, which this year has the goal of combating climate change.

As a hub of the growing international alternative transport movement, World Carfree Network provides networking support and a plethora of online resources to grassroots groups and municipalities alike, from carfree day promotional materials to statistics and action reports from around the world. The network serves as a clearinghouse of information for urban design and transportation professionals and nonprofit groups, as well as a center for cross-border coordination and planning for World Carfree Day and related events. The network is assisting grassroots groups around the world with activities ranging from direct actions (painting bike lanes; guerilla gardening; and free bicycle rickshaw taxi services) to family-oriented fun (community bike rides, street theater and potluck breakfasts in the middle of the road).

For further information from World Carfree Network and to set up interviews with transport and urban-development experts contact Arie Farnam at the International Coordination Center at ++420 608 819 276 or afarnam [at] worldcarfree.net. Also, see the network‘s carfree day activities at http://worldcarfree.net/wcfd

Portland Carfree Days
http://protest.net/pdxindymedia/index.cgi?span=event&ID=594990

Ashland Car Free Day
http://rogueimc.org/en/2006/09/7221.shtml

The automobile is NOT the root of all problems in our lives. It's a mere manifestation of deeper problems implicit within society. I love riding bikes, but I don't consider it "radical," because it isn't. Why not go deeper, and question cities, technology, civilization? And what is this attempt at a "parade" that is exactly identical to Critical Mass? How fun can that be anyways, and how successful?