International car free day

international | environment | news report Friday September 26, 2003 19:44 by dunk - FUSPEY 02092997 at brookes dot ac dot uk

Car Free Day was celebrated in more than 1100 European cities and towns and even some in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Taiwan. Monday 22 September was the first time this 3-year-old event fell on a working day. Whereas most main cities in Europe closed off entire sections of the city, the Dublin City Council closed off no roads this year. To add to this their publicity of the event was so bad that most people were unaware it was Car Free Day.

one car less

As a reaction against this Dublin city saw another critical mass and RTS (reclaim the streets) protest party. Also at lunchtime the DCC (dublin cycling campaign) held a wake on the steps of the civic offices to “mourn the death of Car Free Day”. The RTS ended up linking in with the Bin-Tax Protests .

read reports 1 | 2 | 3

see photos 1 | 2

hopefully the city council can redeem itself and close off the entire city centre next year, like many of its sister cities did this year