Car-free day

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Car Free Day 2005 in Brussels

The Car Free Day is a day on which the use of automobiles and other motor vehicles should be restricted.

In the 1950s and 1970s, car-free days were ordered by the authorities because there was a threat of a shortage in the supply of petroleum.

More recently, the car-free day has been seen as a day of action combined with the demand for a traffic turnaround , which is initiated and supported by various organizations (e.g. environmental associations and churches). It takes place annually on September 22nd . In municipalities that take part in the European Mobility Week, this date is occasionally deviated from by a few days.

Car-free (Sundays) days

The idea of ​​generally avoiding the use of the car for one day a year is already supported by almost all states of the European Union and, moreover, by most municipalities and cities. Thousands of congregations in Germany, hundreds in Switzerland and Austria and also in other countries have issued corresponding calls.

Car-free days are, for example, street festivals, demonstrations, other events or the regularly recurring clearance of the lane for non-motorized locomotion, such as inline skates .

On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur , motorized private transport is largely canceled for 25 hours in Israel .

history

Car-free Sunday 1956 southwest of Zurich

Suez crisis 1956

Triggered by the Suez crisis , the Swiss government issued a Sunday driving ban for four Sundays on November 16, 1956.

1973 oil crisis

Germany

The term car-free Sunday was widely used during the first oil crisis in 1973 and was also known throughout Germany. West Germany reacted to the oil crisis with an unusual austerity measure and imposed a total of four car-free Sundays (November 25, December 2, 9 and 16, 1973) as well as speed limits with the Energy Security Act of November 9, 1973. Many German citizens were amazed to take advantage of the rare opportunity to explore a motorway on foot or by bike. Only taxis, doctors and fresh produce suppliers were allowed to drive. On the fourth car-free Sunday there were so many exceptions that there were traffic jams on the streets again.

Austria

In contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany, in which car-free Sundays were established as early as 1973, all drivers in Austria had to choose an individual car-free day of the week. From January 14, 1974, every car in Austria had to wear a sticker for the desired day of the week. This day of the week was entered in the vehicle control card and indicated by a 10 × 6 cm (W x H) piece of paper with the day of the week abbreviation (Sun, Mon, ...) at the top behind the windshield. These notes were z. B. printed in newspapers for cutting. Households with 2 cars in the family had the "advantage" in terms of car availability. There were exceptions, for example, for doctors who made home calls by car. This special permit was marked with an additional sticker. Authority vehicles, such as the police, road service, and trucks in general were excluded. The regulation for the car-free day only lasted five weeks.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, too, following the Yom Kippur War (October 6 to 24, 1973), car-free Sundays were ordered. From November 25th, driving bans were in effect on three Sundays. According to media reports, the population turned it into a folk festival: the streets became bicycle and roller-skating rinks, and walkers strolled along large traffic axes.

Since the 1980s

Car-free day in Vorarlberg
Car-free Sunday in the Taubertal (2016)

Since the end of the 1980s there have been increasingly car-free roads in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and worldwide on one Sunday a year, e.g. For example, on September 22, the corresponding day of action , or the corresponding whole week of action: During the day, the traffic routes are completely closed to motorized traffic over a length of 15 to 140 kilometers and made available to visitors on foot, on bicycles or roller skates. It has become common practice that local residents offer drinks, cakes and other food on the roadside. The roads are often located in a river valley, and both sides of the river are often closed, for example at Happy Mosel or Tal Total , the “car-free Rhine valley ”. According to the Umwelt- und Prognose-Institut, the number of these adventure days rose to 77 per year in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by 2011.

In Switzerland and with corresponding cross-border campaigns, these days of action are called slow-ups .

In Italy, since 2000, the centers of 150 cities have been free from car traffic on four Sundays a year. In Paris, the right bank of the Seine is off- limits to motor vehicles at all weekends of the year and throughout August.

In Mexico City, the main artery has been reserved for non-motorized traffic every Sunday since 2007. The car-free streets have become a fixed event.

At the beginning of 2008 an initiative to enforce a car-free Sunday was founded in Berlin.

In addition, various groups demanded or organized a “car-free university day” (AFH) locally. They presented alternative possibilities of mobility and criticized the problems of current mobility behavior in our society. This met with resistance from students who, for various reasons, are dependent on the approach by car or who refused to do so for basic considerations (encroachment on personal freedom, denunciation of motorists, etc.).

Implementation types

The articles Car-Free and Car-Free Day # Implementation Types overlap thematically. Help me to better differentiate or merge the articles (→  instructions ) . To do this, take part in the relevant redundancy discussion . Please remove this module only after the redundancy has been completely processed and do not forget to include the relevant entry on the redundancy discussion page{{ Done | 1 = ~~~~}}to mark. W! B: ( discussion ) 16:47, Sep 13. 2017 (CEST)

Many cities and towns close their centers to all motorized traffic for the duration of this day. In others, this is exactly what is heavily criticized, especially by motoring clubs and business representatives. Quite a few municipalities place the car-free day on a Sunday. This does not result in the feared blockade of commercial traffic, but in an event that increases sales .

In addition to environmental protection associations, alpine and other associations and organizations, various politicians, etc., some traffic clubs also advocate such days of concern - for example the VCD and the VCÖ . The latter also repeatedly propagate the frequent abandonment of the mobile pedestal and some of the possible alternatives to the car.

Alternatives to the car

Individual distances that are significantly longer than the specified distances are covered, especially as chains of tasks with muscle power.

Effects of car waiver

In the course of the preparation of the car-free day 2004 it was noted that on average for every person who refrains from using a car all year round per family, the CO 2 emissions per car decrease by 490 kilograms. A similar value should also apply if, for example, in groups of car sharing, individuals decide to “motorized exit” - if the remaining people do not use this car more (because the load is already falling).

In addition to the reduction of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide , a number of other positive effects can be seen - even on a single day like September 22nd. Some of them are:

Problems and other implications:

  • Bulky or heavy goods can only be transported in exceptional cases without a motor vehicle. Households without their own car have to organize such transports especially for smaller items than households with cars.
  • Cycled customers spend less on average per purchase than those who came by car, but they go shopping more often.
  • In many cases it takes more time to get around. On the other hand, the travel time on public transport can often be used for other activities and promotes mobility by bike as regular physical training for one's own health.
  • If a larger proportion of the population changes from cars to other means of transport, there may be a shift in retail and catering from locations that are easily accessible by car to locations that are easy to reach on foot, by bike or by public transport. Spatial planners are hoping for a reversal of the previous shift towards “green fields”.
  • Quite a few people with physical disabilities are so dependent on cars to get around that they either have to continue to use appropriate services or cannot do without their own car.

Partial car waiver

For some years now, quite a few people have practiced partial renunciation of cars:

  • In the case of carpooling and car pooling , the car of one owner becomes a public means of transport for other people with or without their own car. Better utilization on journeys improves the environmental balance of car traffic.
  • Car sharing is an option for people who only want to cope with a small part of their mobility by car, for example on routes and times with poor public transport or the transport of larger items.

Car-free day and mobility week specifically

Some city administrations in the German-speaking area of ​​Europe generally refuse to participate in car-free zones on September 22nd . Others prefer ring-shaped traffic restrictions around the old towns such as B. Vienna , where official bodies (e.g. the City Council for Transport) distance themselves from the Car-Free Day. The inner areas of many cities are kept car-free for at least a few hours and some of the main roads are "given back to the people". Bicycle and pedestrian traffic as well as public transport are not only excluded from this, but also increasingly made possible - among other things

  • through free trams and buses ,
  • Festivals and other events,
  • Speakers Corners of MPs, city councils, mayors, ministers or other politicians,
  • Temporary accessibility of inner-city federal highways in some of those municipalities that reject large-scale or municipality-wide closures
  • Art activities from the distribution of warning squares to a variety of accompanying programs
  • Lawns on the ring - is a piece of Ringstrasse (auto-free) with turf is for a picnic
  • Skate night in Vienna and Tour de Graz roll a bit on the motorway by bike and inline skates

See also

Web links

Commons : Car-Free Days  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Transforming Urban: Tel Aviv. Hans-Dieter Edler, Martin Grabner. Austria 2016, film length: approx. 46 min. (English). - Played June 24, 2016, Summer Cinema, Haus der Architektur, Graz.
  2. ↑ http://www.hda-graz.at/event.php?item=10039 Summer cinema: Camera Austria, House of Architecture, Kunsthaus Graz. hda-graz.at> Calendar> 2016. June 23 - July 6, 2016, accessed June 24, 2016.
  3. ^ Federal Council minutes 10 December 1956 in the Dodis database of diplomatic documents in Switzerland
  4. ^ Sophie Gerber: Introduction of a "car-free day". House of Austrian History, accessed on July 29, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Hermann Neumülle: When the cars suddenly had stickers. OÖ Nachrichten, October 6, 2015, accessed on July 29, 2020 .
  6. ↑ 40 years ago: Sunday driving ban in Switzerland. In: Swiss Radio and Television (SRF). November 25, 2013, accessed November 8, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Umwelt- und Prognose-Institut , upi-institut.de: Car-free Sundays (2012)
  8. ↑ worldcarfree.net
  9. ↑ mobilityweek.eu
  10. ^ UPI Report 37: Car-Free Sundays
  11. ↑ velostation-loerrach.de
  12. ↑ basel-dreiland.ch
  13. ↑ slowup-hochrhein.info
  14. ↑ Arte broadcast “Dicke Luft” from January 26, 2016, from 1:05:22 minutes onwards
  15. ↑ Planet Mexico
  16. ↑ Peter Neumann: Car-free day on June 1st - but without compulsion. In: Berliner Zeitung . March 13, 2008, accessed June 19, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Katharina Buess: forced break for drivers averted. The non-partisan initiative for a car-free Sunday has failed. In: the daily newspaper . March 13, 2008, accessed September 22, 2017 .
  18. ↑ The arrondissements I , II , III and IV as well as the Champs-Élysées were closed to cars, with the exception of many taxis and a few private cars and buses other than public buses
  19. ↑ Car-free shopping ( Memento from November 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), RE TIMES
  20. ↑ Car-free: Dispute over a picnic on the Wiener Ring , wienerzeitung.at, September 23, 2009, accessed on April 15, 2015