AGENDA 3a(6)

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

FROM:            Tab Combs, Chair

                        Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board

SUBJECT:      World Car Free Day, September 22, 2006

DATE:              September 1, 2006

At its August 25, 2006 meeting the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board discussed World Car Free Day, September 22, 2006.

World Car Free Day is an annual celebration of cities and public life, free from the noise, stress and pollution of cars. Each year on September 22, people around the world organize events of all sizes to showcase alternatives to the automobile.

World Car Free Day began as an open call for a grassroots celebration of cities without cars. The date, September 22, was chosen to coincide with the EU-sponsored European Mobility Week.

Car Free days were organized as early as during the oil crisis of the 1970s, and several car free days were organized in European cities during the early 1990s. An international car free day was organized in Europe in 1999, which was the pilot project for the European Union’s "In Town Without My Car" campaign. This campaign continues as European Mobility Week.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board supports Car Free Day and requests that the Town Council support Car Free Day by encouraging the Town staff to pledge to go car free and car lite on September 22. The Board suggests that Town departments could compete with each other for participation.

Staff could pledge at http://www.gocarfree.com/ to:

• Use transit instead of driving alone
• Ride a bicycle instead of driving alone
• Walk instead of driving alone
• Carpool, vanpool, or use a taxicab instead of driving alone
• Walk to lunch, or eat lunch at my office or school to save a trip

By Consensus:           Brian Decker, Kate Millard, Ray Piplani, Tab Combs (Chair),

Wendy Sarratt, Dave Love, Jed Dube and Perri Morgan