[sustran] Car-free day in Chengdu

[Mark Diesendorf]

I'm forwarding the following report by Lydia Feng, who was visiting 
Chengdu at the time:


Car-Free Day in Chengdu, PR China

At 10.00 am on Saturday 14 October 2000, Chengdu City of Sichuan 
Province, People's Republic of China,  started the first ever 
"Car-Free Day" of the nation. The whole activity involved the central 
part of the city, comprising about 14 square km in area, and included 
321 streets and 51 intersections within the boundaries of the Fu and 
Nan Rivers.

 From 10.00 am, no motor vehicle was allowed to be on the roads, 
except for buses, taxis, tourist vehicles and vehicles for special 
purposes such as garbage and emergency services. Non-motor-driven 
vehicles, such as bicycles, rickshaws and disabled people's tricycles 
etc., were  everywhere on the roads, not just in the bicycle lanes.

According to official statistics in the local newspapers, the volume 
of motor vehicles passing the five major traffic junctions on that 
day was 65.2% less than the average volume in June this year. Another 
presentation of traffic data said that among the 650,000 motor 
vehicles in the city, only 20,000 were on the roads, and most of 
these were taxis. The nitrogen oxide and particulate pollutants were 
reported to be reduced by 35% and 29% respectively.

The Mayor of Chengdu, Mr Wang Rongxuan,  led a special cycling tour 
by UN and municipal officials to the central part of the city, the 
Tianfu Square. Later, other interesting events occurred on the 
streets: bicycle tours around the city involving 2000 aged people, 
rickshaw marriage floats, and free city tours offered by Nos 301 and 
302 city bus lines. The streets were crowded with curious people who 
eagerly wanted to experience their city without motor vehicles.

A public attitude survey was conducted at the Tianfu Square. Forty 
minutes after the starting time of the Car-Free Day, the "agree" 
section of the large survey form on the board was filled with 
people's "support" ticks.

Meanwhile, a large-scale public campaign was launched among schools 
and university students. Students were organised to set up a number 
of environment protection promotion stands on the walking paths where 
they read out environment protection articles to the passing flow of 
pedestrians, taxi drivers and cyclists.

At 5.00 pm, the completion and success of the whole campaign was 
announced. National and local media covered this event extensively, 
among which positive comments dominated. In a rare event, the sky 
above the city, showed its beautiful blessing blue on that day, 
leaving an unforgettable memory in the citizens' minds.

Lydia Feng

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