What is In Town, Without My Car?
In Town, Without My Car! is now a firmly established date in the calendar of governments across Europe and beyond. On the 22nd of September every year, town centre streets close to cars and lorries, and open up for people to enjoy walking, cycling, street theatre, live music, dancing, public art and children's play areas.
In Town, Without My Car! allows us to question what our town centre streets are really for, and whether we have got the balances right between the differing and often competing needs of street users. Should our high streets and residential suburbs be designed to maximise throughput of motor traffic, or should the emphasis be on designing social spaces where people can enjoy shopping and other activities in relative peace and quiet and safety? In Town, Without My Car! gives us some quiet time to pause and reflect on these issues, and a tantalising glimpse of what our town centre streets could be like with less motor traffic.
In Town, Without My Car! is a visionary campaign which shares the streets-for-people philosophy of the London Mayor's Transport Strategy - using the streets as social spaces and for public transport, walking and cycling. It is about improving the quality of life for all citizens in towns and cities, a happy invention allowing people to come together and see how much better urban life can be when cars are simply withdrawn from the urban transport mix. The campaign upholds the Government's objectives to give priority to people over traffic.
Too often, town centres have been sacrificed to busy roads: the New Deal for Transport will give priority to people over traffic... We want towns and cities to be places where people want to live. The New Deal for transport will support the urban renaissance that is essential to revitalise urban living... this means people being able to go about their daily business without being intimidated by traffic... Traffic can be calmed from the outset by designing for low speeds. Sometimes new developments can be designed to be 'car free'.
Source: A New Deal for Transport - Better For Everyone, DETR, July 1998
Potted Campaign History
The campaign origins date back to a street party event during ETA Green Transport Week in Bath in June 1995. The first French En Ville Sans Ma Voiture event was in La Rochelle in September 1997. In 1998 the event expanded across France, and the following year to Italy and Switzerland; 1999 - 2001 saw massive expansion across most countries in the European Union, and since then it has spread across most of Eastern Europe and well beyond.
Over 2,000 towns and cities in 35 countries participated in the 2007 campaigns, some 60 of them in the UK.
In Town, Without My Car! is but an early stepping stone towards the even greater challenge of how we should be extending the benefits of this one-day phenomenon into progress 365 days a year, for instance by using September 22nd as an opportunity to test plans for more permanent controls on private motor traffic, or to trial more efficient, integrated and sustainable systems for delivering goods to businesses.
In the final analysis, In Town, Without My Car! is about much more than just a day: ultimately, it is about handing on a more habitable city to our children.
UK cities, towns and villages of all sizes are invited to participate in future In Town, Without My Car! and European Mobility Week events. This website is designed to supply all the necessary information to any group - local authority, voluntary or other - wanting to take a local lead. Please browse through the first few pages to get an overview, then do not hesitate to contact the national co-ordinator for further guidance: Richard Evans
For related documents, pages and internet links, see the column on the right.
