(Last 200 visitors to check in to http://ecoplan.org/carfreedays/site)
Every day is a great day to take a few cars off the street and think about it.
WCFDs 2014 Status
Today is 22 August 2014 and in one month to the day we will be seeing several hundred cities organizing, in one way or another, car free day events. The above map which shows the two hundred latest visitors to our WCFD site will certainly fill out considerably as preparations continue.
A principal source of information on WCFDs (as we understand them) since 2009 have been the main World Streets site at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/category/car-free-days/.
There are plenty of others as a quick scan of Google will show. However most of these relate to specific car free day projects or cities. The World Carfree Network at www.worldcarfree.net was a useful international source and support group from 1997, but since 2010 is has not been run on a regular basis.
The European Commission has also been an important player since 2000. Their ‘In Town Without My Car!’ event has been running annually on 22 September since 2000, and is now a supporting piece of the European Mobility Week of which all details can be had at http://www.mobilityweek.eu. World Streets has recently reported on the plans for the 2014 week, which you will find at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/european-mobility-week-2014-cities/.
In 2001 we organized an Earth Car Free Day 2001 with the Earth Day Network and in 2002, United National Car Free Day in cooperation with the United Nations. (For more, https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/car-free-days-2010-part-1-origins-timeline/)
Up to 2009, the main source of international information and platform for collaboration was the World Car Free Days Collaborative that was set up to support the collaborative program in 1994. By clicking to http://ecoplan.org/carfreedays/ you will be taken directly there. And while in the last several years the bulk of the activity of the program has been coordinated through World Streets, there is a great wealth of historic and background information and references to be found here.
From WCFD update introduction of 22 August 2014.
Dear Reader,
Please note that this WCFD website is part of a greater whole, and largely that what you find here traces back to a time when this website served as the “Journal of Record” of EcoPlan’s long-lived World Car Free Days project, which first got underway in 1994 and continues to this day. The site is semi-conveniently divided into two parts, as follows:
Historic: The greater part of the substantial reference materials contained here are activated by the left-hand menu essentially cover the period 1994 through 2009, at which time the role of journal of reference moved over to World Streets at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/. However, even if these contents are today “out of date” the fact is that there is extensive material here that will interest researchers and anyone who is trying to better understand the history and evolution of the Car Free Day movement since it’s launching in 1994 in Toledo Spain. The complete story on this first decade-plus will be found in these pages.
Current: For the most recent material, a good starting place is the top menu just above which has just been updated to reflect current developments and the state of the art of Car Free Day planning and implementation as per 2014. For a summary on a single page of the main current references and sources, we can point you to A Bit More on Car Free Days Planning and Implementation at https://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/a-bit-more-on-car-free-days/.
As you will see there are basically two kinds of car free days: events and strategies. Until now the former have massively dominated the field. That is not all bad since with a bit of luck and careful preparation the events are at best good fun and can give satisfaction to all concerned. And sometimes bit by bit they can start to take hold and encourage all involved to start to think in more strategic terms. Because from the beginning that was the intended job of the CFD: to, step by small step, lay the base for a better, fairer and more efficient mobility system for the city, and a better future for all.
What next? If you want to see a real-world example of how a CFD can be turned from a simple event in your city into a working medium-term strategy, we invite you to check out Taipei City Car Free Day Strategy.
And now if you wish to access the main body of the historic materials contained in the site, we invite you to click the START HERE link on the menu just to your left
Now off we go. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get some of those cars off our streets.
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Another car full day in Busan (and surely in your city)
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Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 France
Bio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
WORLD STREETS __ A New Mobility Action Plan for 2022 