It seems that every day, a new technology eliminates some inefficiency or harmful impact of old products and practices. And yet, there remains one major holdover, fighting change and trying to hold the tides from coming in: our national love of driving.
The harmful societal and economic impacts of our car-dependent transportation network and culture are well-documented by researchers and well-known by nearly anyone: traffic, emission pollution, dependency on oil, deaths and injuries.
Uber, Lyft and others in the ride-sharing revolution have begun to make a dent in the inefficiency of the American transportation system, but only a dent so far. Broad scale, impactful change probably remains a decade or more away.
So what more can we do right now?
A new idea has emerged and its gaining prominence: Car Free NYC.
Our mission is to encourage New York City drivers to choose alternative means of moving about on Earth Day, this Friday, April 22nd.
Car Free Day is about encouraging people to make more thoughtful decisions in their daily lives, particularly related to transportation. On Friday, we aim to drastically limit the number of cars on New York City streets by encouraging residents and commuters to choose one of the many other forms of transportation that New York offers, for one day of the year.
We are asking New Yorkers to leave their cars at home through an array of marketing, including through social media and peer-to-peer contact. Companies and organizations from across the city, including Citi Bike, New York Water Taxi and Lyft will be offering incentives to commuters for getting around the city in alternative ways, and companies like FedEx and colleges like NYU, Columbia and The New School will be limiting their own car use on Earth Day.
A handful of streets will be closed to vehicles on Car Free day, including Broadway from 17th-23rd streets; Washington Square Park East, West, North & South; as well as Waverly Place and West 4th Street between Washington Square Park West and Broadway; and Wadsworth Avenue in Washington Heights from 173rd-177th Streets. The streets will feature programming from local community organizations, aimed at promoting environmental sustainability and thinking around the impact of transportation on our environment.
In a world becoming more efficient every day, moving around in personal vehicles is maybe the most inefficient thing we do.
Next time you are stuck in traffic anywhere from the Van Wyck to East Midtown, look around (carefully) at the vehicles near you, and note the number of people in cars versus the number of seats in the car. Think about the space that each of those cars takes up, or how much more efficient it would be if each were on a bus or train rather than the many cars they occupy.
In addition to the negative impacts we all know, the unseen victims of car-based pollution are children in primarily low-come, minority neighborhoods.
Look at the childhood asthma rates in Harlem and the South Bronx - they are the highest in the city. Why? In part because of smog produced by car traffic and low-income communities typically bear the brunt of the environmental burden of vehicle traffic.
Working to blunt the negative impacts of fossil fuel consumption and promoting environmental justice for all is one of the most impactful and important steps we can take in the battle against income inequality.
Car-free solutions are viewed typically with skepticism initially, and unfortunately the knee-jerk critics dominate the debate. But after implementation, car-free initiatives are wildly popular. Think about Broadway in Times Square, where parking lot-like traffic and heavy smog once reigned: now it's a wildly popular pedestrian plaza and the biggest problem we have are how to create even more walking space. Philadelphia recently got a taste of a car free center city during the Papal visit, and it was a tremendous success.
Want to get involved? Pledge to go car free or have your place of work incentivize carpooling or enable employees to telecommute on Earth Day. These steps, taken en masse, can create a real change.
The idea has already drawn widespread support, with hundreds rallying at City Hall a few weeks ago to celebrate the idea.
Will Car Free NYC immediately lead to curbing all the difficultly that comes with our flawed, inefficient and damaging car-based transportation network? No. But we hope it is an idea that will spark a movement, spark some conversation and spark some thought about how the choices we make each day impact the world around us.