AGENDA #3a(7)

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Mayor and Town Council

FROM:            Sarah Bruce, Car Free Day Coordinator

                        The Village Project

SUBJECT:      Car Free Day sponsorship

DATE:                        September 7, 2006

As you have heard from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, World Car Free Day is September 22, 2006.  The Village Project is coordinating a celebration and a Car Free Pledge to publicize the benefits of forgoing driving, with assistance from Students United for a Responsible Global Environment (SURGE) and the ReCYCLEry.

Residents of Orange County who formally pledge to go Car Free or at least Car Lite (reduced car use) for September 22 will be entered into a drawing for prizes.  Anyone can pledge on-line at www.gocarfree.com; pledge forms that can be mailed will also be available in the Chapel Hill News and Chapel Hill Herald over the next two weeks.

Prizes will be drawn at a Car Free Day celebration to be held on the lawn of Weaver Street Market from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm on Friday, September 22.  Celebrants will find information about public transportation, local biking and walking opportunities, and how to create communities that are less dependent on cars.  The Village Project will show their designs and models for transit-oriented, walkable communities on the lawn, and Chapel Hill Transit will demonstrate how to load bikes and wheelchairs onto buses at the Fitch Lumber parking lot (309 North Greensboro St.).

Additional activities will take place at the Carrboro Music Festival the afternoon of Sunday, September 24.  The ReCYCLEry will show their new Blue Urban Bikes and will have a free bike tune-up clinic in the parking lot of the The Clean Machine (104 West Main St.) from 2 to 4 pm.  Volunteers will also be on-hand at the downtown shuttle dropoff (Town Hall) to help Festival goers figure out how they can replace decrease car trips and increase walking, biking, carpooling, telecommmuting, and bus use.

Event sponsors include the Community Action Network (CAN), The Clean Machine, Chapel Hill Herald, Chapel Hill News, Open Eye Café, Weaver Street Market, Chapel Hill Restaurant Group, and Weaver Street Market.

The Village Project requests that the Town of Chapel Hill join these sponsors by donating $500 to The Village Project to pay for bus placard printing and placement and newspaper pledge form publication.  These costs are estimated at s about $1500.  The Town of Carrboro is also being approached for a sponsorship.