Go Green – It’s World Carfree Day
That’s right, today’s the day to leave your car in the garage and hop onto your bike, suss out public transport in your area, or stretch those legs in order to get to school, college or work.
It sounds like quite an undertaking if you’re in the habit of using your car daily, but just think about all of the wasted hours that you’ve spent in traffic jams. Then think of those hours in terms of the amount of petrol that your car has needlessly eaten up, and how damaging that is for the environment as well as for your pocket. Setting off without your own set of wheels soon begins to make more sense.
The organisation behind wants us to think of this not as just a one day event – the idea is to show us how our cities could sound and feel like without so many cars lining our streets. As both climate change and petrol prices are so much in the public eye at the moment, it’s the perfect time for that extra bit of focus.
Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle is getting behind the movement to encourage us all here in the North East, but Carfree Day isn’t just local; it’s a nationwide and indeed international event. And with Channel 4 claiming that seven out of ten people would support a ban on traffic in city centres on certain days, there is evidence that opposition to the car may start to become the norm rather than the exception.
Image via: Dr. Keats
Greta idea – I already send my kids on the school bus every day thereby cutting down on two journeys a day to school. We also started walking to the shops and cycling this summer so that has been great for keeping fit aswell as helping the environment.