Car-Free Day in Chengdu, PR China
Report by Lydia Feng, who was in Chengdu at the time:
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.
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