Honk If You Support World ‘Car-Free Day’
Contact: Richard Morrison, 202-331-2273
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2007—Organizers of the Sept. 22 “World Car-Free Day” are having another go at their annual event aimed at promoting “sustainable” transportation systems &h and a special kind of misery.
“While a car-free lifestyle might be perfect for some, it would be pure misery for many others—among them the handicapped, the elderly, parents carrying infants, people lugging groceries, and suburban residents getting to work”, said Sam Kazman, General Counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “And the car-free lifestyle itself depends for its existence on other motorized vehicles, which deliver everything from organic flour to the ingredients for lattes.”
Mobility, however, has long faced hostility from central planners. In the words of philosopher Loren Lomasky, “people who drive cars upset the patterns spun from the policy intellectual’s brain.”
People can freely choose not to use cars, but a Car-Free Day ought to be run so that its implications are clear. For a realistic day of car-free living, try it:
- When it’s raining
- When you’re carrying several bags of groceries
- When you’re carrying a baby, with a toddler alongside you
- On crutches
- After midnight
- Without using a car or cab to get to the train or bus station, especially in the suburbs.
- Any combination of the above.
Finally, try it on a weekday. September 22nd is a Saturday.
For more on CEI’s work on automobility, see ” Cars, Women, and Minorities: The Democratization of Mobility in America,” by Alan Pisarski and “Car-Free Days? No, Thank You,” by Waldemar Hanasz.