World Car-Free Day!

This Thursday, September 22nd is World Car-Free Day, and we’re taking to the streets!

Families for Climate believes that everyone should be able to easily bike, walk and roll to their everyday destinations, because getting outside the metal box is not only low-carbon and climate-friendly, it’s healthy, fun, cheap, and nurtures community between neighbors. But we know that at present, it’s hard or even impossible for many families to ditch their cars, because their city or town hasn’t invested in the infrastructure necessary to make it safe and convenient.

Swapping cars with internal combustion engines for electric ones is an important climate solution, but ending car dependency is even more critical. Transportation accounts for approximately 30% of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions, and the average American drives around 14,000 miles per year, which is the equivalent of 38 miles everyday. Did you know that in 2020 there were 35,766 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States and 38,824 deaths? As a nation, we’ve become numb to the toll that car violence takes on us, but we shouldn’t have to keep living and dying this way.

We encourage you to take World Car-Free day to explore the possibilities of a car-free or car-lite world for yourself—and then to let your local transportation department know where they need to step up their infrastructure game, whether it’s broken sidewalks, missing bike-lanes, or inaccessible crosswalks. If we all band together to demand better from our leaders and transportation departments, safer streets and climate-friendly, low-car communities are within reach! To learn more about World Car-Free Day, Bike Portland has a great article by Taylor Griggs, who says:

I know from experience that challenging yourself to temporarily shake up your traveling habits can result in a permanent paradigm shift. Even a single day without driving could trigger the realization that it might actually be manageable to go a lot of places without ever stepping foot in a car – and it’s amazing to avoid sitting in traffic for hours or coughing up a small fortune on a regular basis to pay for gas.

And if you’re in the Portland metro area, The Street Trust has a form where you can take the pledge to go car free on September 22nd!