September 2008 Environmental Watch
Car-Free Days are Seattle's Latest eco-fad, but are there any real benefits?
September 2008
As part of the Seattle’s Climate Action Now campaign, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has asked Seattleites to reduce the number of vehicle miles driven by 1,000 miles annually. The Mayor says citizens should do this to help the city reach its official global warming reduction goal. To force Seattleites to participate, the Mayor announced early this summer the closure of three streets, which took place on Sundays in August and September. These closures are part of a growing eco-fad known as Car-Free Days.
Now that the street closures have come and gone, Washington Policy Center staff set out to see whether the Mayor’s Car-Free Days program had accomplished some of its goals, such as reducing the number of miles driven and reducing greenhouse gases. The results show that the City failed to collect any measurable data from the Car-Free Day events, while taxpayers picked up the tab.
Read or download the September 2008 Environmental Watch here (pdf)