Traffic Life : Passionate Tales and Exit Strategies
Edited by Stephan Wehner
An Anthology
 
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238 The Autoholics Anonymous Car-Free Pledge A Few Good Reasons to Go Car-Free These are just some of the things you might like to reflect on if your will weakens during the fifteen days you're trying to curb your habit. Your Car Costs-how much goes into that machine? It's a significant drain on your resources. On average in the US, maintaining a car takes between 10 and 20% of a motorist's total income. Fill in the figures below to work out how much you're saving: Car Tax + Breakdown organisation subscrip- tion + Insurance + MOT Test (UK only) fee + Garage Costs (rent PTLEFT tax) + Estimated An- nual Repair Bill Gives year total: From the week before you start: Fuel Costs + Parking costs + Tolls Gives week total: So your car-free weeks represent a potential saving of (year costs / 24 + 2 x week costs =) Try to imagine that you had this much extra income. It's a good bonus, isn't it? And Then There's The Rest of the World An average motorist switching to public transport for two weeks will save the world three pounds (1.4kg) of atmo- spheric pollution. Switching to cycling or walking will save even more. Most cars emit over 1,000 pollutants, which cause acid air and rain, cancer, lead poisoning, a variety of bronchial and respiratory illnesses, brain damage in chil- dren, heart disease and global warming. In the US, be- tween 10,000 and 24,000 people die each year as a result of pollution traceable to motor transport. Road transport is also the biggest single worldwide contributor to greenhouse gases, causing 30% of all CO emissions worldwide. There are many organisations that will do their utmost to help all your efforts to become car-free, for the two weeks and beyond. World Car-Free Day is co-ordinated interna-
  
Carbusters 239 tionally by Car Busters, an international transport activism collective based in Prague. Our website www.carbusters.org contains a searchable directory of groups all over the world working to reduce car usage by various means, which you may find useful. Before the event. Prepare yourself well. If your job is genuinely out of your reach by public transport or bicycle, try to arrange someone to car-share with for the two weeks (and why not see if others at work will do the same?). Look up the public transport routes. Is there some kind of period ticket you can buy yourself for the duration? Are the times convenient? And if they really aren't, maybe you can even re-arrange your working hours around them, or work from home for some of the time. If you're planning to go by bike, get it out, give it some attention, buy a sturdy lock, lights and mudguards vital in anything less than perfect condi- tions. If it's a really good bike, consider getting it security marked: your local police will probably be able to do this. If you're riding on-road, slick tyres will make riding much more efficient. If you carry a lot into work each day, you might want to invest in some panniers, or a trailer or child seat if you're transporting small children. And if you haven't got a bike, hiring one for two weeks will probably cost less than your petrol costs, or you might be able to borrow one from a friend. Make a count of all your car trips and costs in the week before you start trying to cut down, so you can see the re- sults of your efforts. Only you can decide what the best way is for you, but if you're not at least partly equipped with a bike or knowledge of your public transport routes, you may well not make it. But if you do, maybe you'll do it again, and again ... Day One: Friday. Start slowly today: Make the easiest journeys by public transport. If you're going out tonight, try biking, taking a taxi (find out these useful telephone numbers), or getting someone to drive you. If you go shop-

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