Mobile without a car
Mobil ohne Auto (MoA or MOa) is the largest nationwide traffic policy campaign that takes place annually on the third Sunday in June, followed by the Car-Free University Day (AfH) on the Tuesday after. The aim of the event is to demonstrate and advertise a traffic turnaround, in particular environmentally and socially acceptable and democratic mobility in the environmental network .
history
In 1981, Christians in what was then the GDR for the first time left the car in a joint action. Employees of the church research center in Wittenberg and the East German church environmental education center headed by Hans-Peter Gensichen initiated the “Mobile without a car” campaign . The appeal met with a great response and had a great public impact, also in the sense of a protest by mainly church youth and environmental groups in the GDR. The action was often linked to information events or environmental worship services.
In the mid-1980s, the campaign was also combined with the tradition of the West German car-free Sundays , which extended across Bavaria and beyond the Iron Curtain . Since then, committed citizens, churches, environmental, home and sports associations as well as parts of the public administration have supported the annual day of action.
Even before the fall of the Wall , the day of action enjoyed growing popularity in the old Federal Republic. The campaign was expanded to include a car-free high school day on the following Tuesday. On the occasion of the activities of this day, state and federal roads will be closed to cars. Cheap day tickets or “ zero tariff ” for buses and trains make the car-free offer attractive in many regions. Pedestrian, cyclist and inline skating events, street actions, demonstrations, street and station festivals, but also special train and tram trips contribute to the attractiveness of the day of action. Regional priorities were established in the south and north as well as in Berlin around the UN World Environment Day . Since 2007, some municipalities in Germany have combined the “Mobil ohne Auto” day of action with the city cycling campaign .
Regional focus
Baden-Württemberg
In Baden-Württemberg, around 250,000 people take advantage of offers for car-free mobility with trains, buses, bikes, inline skates, ships and on foot in around 150 locations on the annual Mobil-ohne-Auto- Aktionstag. The priorities so far have been in the Rhine-Neckar region, in the Neckar valley between Heilbronn and Mosbach, in the Nagold valley, on Lake Constance, on the Upper Rhine and in the large Lautertal. So far, the state has been the leader in terms of the number of events and participants.
Hamburg
Since 1995, environmental and traffic groups in Hamburg and the surrounding area have been organizing campaigns for Mobile-Without-Car Day, the largest of which is the annual bicycle rally . Routes from the Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein area make the rally a central North German event. In 2009 around 18,000 cyclists took part. For the first time, the Hamburg city government blocked traffic on many streets because the day was officially declared a voluntary car-free day. Public transport could be used free of charge. In the past few years, up to 30,000 people have traveled with them.
Other regions
Events are also held in the federal states of Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia (Cologne), Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Thuringia.
See also
- Car-free day , annual European day of action on September 22nd
- European Bicycle Day
Web links
- Mobile without a car North region
- Mobile without a car Baden-Nagoldtal
- Mobile without a car Nürtingen
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chronicle of the church research home (PDF; 6 kB)
- ↑ “Mobil ohne Auto” in the Umweltwiki Sachsen ( memento of the original from January 6, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
