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Ken Livingstone will be at the Royal Institute of British Architects, 66 Portland Place London W1, for the London Car Free Day launch event on 13th September at 2.45pm.
Ten local authorities in Britain, including five London boroughs (Camden, Lambeth, Merton, Southwark and Sutton) are participating in European Car Free Day In Town, Without My Car! on 22nd September, closing town centre streets to motor traffic.
This year’s initiative on 22nd September follows the success of the In Town, Without My Car! day held on the same day last year, when 66 French cities and 92 Italian cities participated. Car-free areas were established in large parts of city centres, enabling people to discover their home town on foot, by bicycle or public transport. 22 million people participated in the campaign and over 85 % want it to be regularly repeated.
European Car Free Day will offer people the opportunity to see the many benefits that traffic reduction can bring to their own town and city centres. The campaign will demonstrate the advantages of sustainable transport, showing people how cycling, using public transport and walking can be enjoyable and how cities designed around these forms of transport are more vibrant, with more space for important activities like street
cafes, music, children to play, public art and theatre. The campaign will generally promote activity designed to show how car-free streets are "streets for people".
Last year Paris closed down some 40 miles of roads to motor traffic, and people simply could not believe how tranquil their cities could be without cars for a few hours. 44% of people said they wanted a car free day every week!
More details of the various UK car-free events will be published on the website of the Environmental Transport Association at www.eta.co.uk.
European Car Free Day Co-ordinator for the UK is Richard Evans.
Tel: 020 8946 0912
Email: richard.evans@eta.co.uk
