[sustran] fwd: UK National Car-Free Day

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Tue Jun 8 10:22:09 JST 1999


forwarded from pednet list:

Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 07:52:02 +0100
From: Geraint Jennings <geraint at itl.net>
Subject: pednet: From today's Times - National Car-Free Day

This message sent to pednet by Geraint Jennings <geraint at itl.net>.

June 7 1999
  
  Car-free days may be imposed on cities 

  MINISTERS are preparing radical plans to allow town and
  city centre roads to be shut for one day a year to persuade
  motorists to leave their cars at home (Arthur Leathley
  writes). 

  Tomorrow's National Car-Free Day may be the last on which
  drivers have no formal restrictions. 

  Local councils are prevented by law from one-off road
  closures, except in the case of emergencies but ministers
  have been impressed by French success in greatly reducing
  traffic when roads are shut on car-free days. Thirty-five towns
  and cities in France used the restriction last year, cutting
  car traffic by up to a third, and reducing noise and pollution. 

  A wide-ranging Transport Bill to allow road closures and
  councils to charge motorists is being prepared for the next
  session of Parliament starting in the autumn. Legislation
  allowing new charges to be introduced in London is already
  close to finishing its passage through Parliament. 

  In France, local councils are compelled to draw up detailed
  reports of the effects of Car-Free Day, testing public reaction
  and monitoring pollution and noise levels. 

  Tomorrow's British equivalent will be much lower profile, but
  many bus and rail companies are offering discounts and
  special facilities to encourage drivers to switch to public
  transport and environmental groups are encouraging drivers
  to walk or cycle to work where possible. 

  Andrew Davis, director of the Environmental Transport
  Association, a campaigning motoring organisation behind
  Car-Free Day, said: "We have built up public awareness but
  we now need to go further. We want the Government to give
  financial and legal backing to the event to give it a higher
  profile." 

 
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