Carfree carefree??

Last Sunday was Autofreier Sonntag in Hannover. That means it was a car free day, when streets in the center of town were closed and people were encouraged to get around any way other than by car. Car free days are celebrated in many countries - Canada, Bulgaria, Colombia, China, Austria, Brazil... the list goes on. World Carfree Day was established in 1994 and is celebrated on Sept. 22nd.

Some cities have taken it further. In Jakarta, Indonesia, every Sunday morning is car free, when the city's two main streets are entirely closed (this would be less effective in Germany, where no one gets out of bed before noon on a Sunday). Bogota has taken big steps toward reducing the number of cars driving through its city, by improving public transit and reducing car traffic during rush hours. Bogota even had a whole car free week in February, when some main roads in this city of 7 million were closed to cars.

In the McCarthy household of Hannover, every day is a car free day. It's not because we leave it in the garage, it's because we just don't have one. Usually I love not having a car. I never sit in traffic, never worry about oil changes, never pay car insurance. It doesn't keep us from going places; we even headed out to the suburbs twice last week in a marathon tram-bus-foot combination. True, once in a while the rain makes me want to go nowhere on two wheels. Once in a while I feel like a pack animal carrying a major load of groceries home. Surprisingly enough, getting rid of his pickup truck has not gotten Brian out of helping all his friends move.

Americans love our cars. We need our cars. Our country is huge, so are the roads, and, unless you live in a major city, public transportation is pathetic. So most households have at least one car, and more often two. The great American road trip and route 66 and the Ford Mustang are ours. Can Americans get behind a carless lifestyle? (New York City doesn't count). Guess what - we already have fewer cars per capita than Western Europeans. That's right. The Italians, the Poles, the French and especially the Germans all have more cars than the Americans do. I didn't make it up, the World Bank says so and so does The Atlantic.

Why is this the case? I don't know. I have done enough nerdy research for one day. I will let you go ahead and speculate. But it makes me think that living without a car is a little more realistic for Americans than it seems.

During Hannover's Autofreier Sonntag, the city streets were full of bouncy castles, skateboard contests, music stages and unicycle demonstrations. Ironically, it was a lot harder to get around by bike than on a day with normal traffic. Too bad we couldn't throw our bikes in the back of the pickup truck and drive out of town.