car free day
international |
environment |
opinion/analysis 
Friday September 19, 2003 17:22
by dunk - FUSPEY
02092997 at brookes dot ac dot uk
DUB
international car free day is happening in 3 days, monday 22nd of september
What is a sustainable city ?
In more than 20 European countries over 88 million European citizens will be taking part in a wide range of activities dedicated to the promotion of sustainable mobility and transport modes. “In town without my car!” day (Car Free Day) is falling on a working day, Monday 22 September, which is in 3 days time
This year, the Car Free Day will be celebrated in more than 1100 European cities and towns, with 936 participating and 265 supporting cities.
You can find out what’s going on in other areas at
http://www.22september.org/part/en/natsit.html
Many cities around Europe will be closing off large parts of the city centre to cars and public transport will run for free.
In Dublin the city council are closing off no roads (i talked to the chief organiser) and they are not encouraging people to do too much stuff. I could only find 2 pieces about the day on their website and they were both hard to find
http://www.dublincity.ie/news2.htm
As a result we will have a RTS (reclaim the streets) protest party here in Dublin. We feel the city council should be doing more, so in protest we will be blocking off a street and with that trying to get the message across to people that we really must DO something about CO2 emissions and cities gridlocked with cars. Other nodes around Europe will have similar events. Members of the green party have supported these actions in the past
http://www.freewebs.com/rts-dublin/index.html is the RTS dublin website
We really need to explore further the question of transport and the city.
Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9~
The Bin Trucks do a North inner city run on Monday evening. Anybody up for an RTS diversion to defend the right to protest? If Joe can be done for it so can RTS and Critical mass, we should not let this pass.
Great idea.
Yep, and bring your waste to the recycling-bank on foot from now on!
how long would it take for the shacks to be built?
on the pat kenny radio show on friday there was talk about the "council flyers" that had been placed on cars, in which it said roughly the following
the council would encourage people not to bring their cars into town on Monday as the gardai have informed them that there will be a reclaim the streets protest party in a main city street so and this will have major traffic disruption.
many callers phoned in to ask pat to find out about it. near the end of the show pat said the city council had been on and told people that it was a hoax
anyway the "hoaxers" got the word out to people that it was car free day.
how much effort has been made by the council to inform people that it is car free day, how many people will leave their car at home.
as stated above lots of major cities block off lots of the city to cars on this day.
dublin did this "officially" in the past but they were places that did not affect people too much
which is the specific purpose of "car free day"
stop people on that day so that in future they might use better, more sustainable, ways of transport
i have heard that public transport is free from 10.00 till 1.00, the most off peak time. if his is true, as my friend said its "rubbing salt into the wounds"
2 years ago for "car free day" there was a critical mass which finished with a RTS. To try to get the point across o`connell st was blocked at both ends and the street was taken over, football was played. the police vans came and a sit down protest happened, then the police moved people away with some heavy hand tactics and things eventually ended
may day 2002 there was another rts which became known as the "may day riots". which is a wrong term- policed deliberately attacked peaceful protestors and passers by in the hope that there would be a response and a riot would ensue.
unfortunately for them everybody remained peaceful and the police got into trouble, which is still going on
last "car free day" also happened on a sunday. part of baggot st. was reclaimed, the sun was out, the music was pumping and a fine party was had. people of all ages were there.
some people say that the may day stuff was a preparation for big talks which will attract many "anti globalisation" protestors. there is an upcoming talk happening this may and some people reckon 20,000 - 30,000 will come. if this is the case could tomorow get nasty like may day 2002?
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61210
is more on that upcoming event
hopefully tomorows "car free day" will be peaceful and fun
PS- do any of you know anything about
TAZ- Temporary Autonomous Zone a copyleft book by
HAKIM BEY
Didn't work. Failed miserably.
Why?
Cause we want to drive our cars where ever the fuck we want!
the fact that we, as a country, are becoming so backward and soon to be the laughing stock of europe due to our inability to contribute anything to this brilliant incentive surely makes you wonder.
most other countries do this "car free day" no bother, the government closes down many roads, the public go along with it, public transport is free all day, everyone manages.
here though- not even 1 street.
so with that, i think any attempt to challenge is inaction is healty.
it did work, traffic was stopped for some time, it was reported in some media.
what did you forsee- the entire city coming to a standstill?
this would have been great, but perhaps most people in this city dont care about environmental issues
and it was good to meet up with people again
At least the buses were free from 10am to 4pm on Car Free day but I doubt a private Dublin Bus company would even make this gesture.
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.