How will you be getting to work tomorrow? Wednesday 22 September is International Car Free Day and citizens around the world will leave their cars at home taking this day as an opportunity to find another way to get around town.
This day aims not only to highlight the pollution and toxic fumes caused by cars, but also to remind us that there is an alternative to the noise, traffic jams, delayed journeys and frustrating congestion that we put up with every day, twice a day.
Almost 40% of the transport sector’s CO2 emissions are produced by the use of private cars in cities.
If you can avoid using your car on the 22nd September even for one journey you will be helping reduce pollution in your area and who knows, you might even save a little money and enjoy the change of pace.
We have just discovered some good news for those South Africans looking to reduce their travel footprint. The Western Cape Provincial Government has pledged not to invest in any major road construction, routing it instead to public transport. National Government is also looking into a high speed rail link between JHB and Durban and further down the line between CT and JHB, as well as JHB and Zimbabwe.
“The realisation appears to be taking hold in SA that throwing money after roads simply encourages more vehicles to traverse their wider surfaces.” Business Report.
The introduction of a high speed railway in SA would be a great opportunity for South African’s to reduce our internal flights. Did you know that taking a domestic flight between JHB and Cape Town creates 250kg of CO2 and is 5 times more carbon costly than taking a coach? We did an analysis of the costs and time versus carbon footprint of travelling between Cape Town, JHB and Durban and found that taking the coach was the most sustainable and cheapest option, but was definitely not the fastest. Sharing the driving with four people in the car was also a better option. Visit our website here to see our comparisons.
Images from quezi.com, proreferee.com and National Geographic
