OK, we know that up to now most of the thought and action on our topic has been aimed at organizing CFD projects in towns and cities. Fair enough! There is a lot that is good and logical in this way of looking at it. After all, at the end of the day the objective, the hope, is to use these Days as stepping stones to finding ways to achieve major reductions in the number of solo-driver cars in cities, without sacrificing convenience or quality of life for the people that live, work and study there.

The difficult truth is however that despite the progress of the last year or so, there are still relatively few cities in the world ready to take the time and trouble (and risk!) to organize a full-size, city-wide CFD. . . yet! The point is that getting a car free day project right at the level of a whole city is no easy job -- so if that's you target, you had better be prepared to work very hard and very smart if you are going to make your CFD a true success.

Even in Europe the most that we can realistically hope for in most places is that the city's administrators will agree (usually rather reluctantly) to have some kind of 'mini-day'. This has been the prevailing pattern in most places thus far, where typically a few central blocks are cordoned off and given over to walkers and cyclists for a few hours. But if we look to the cities of North America and Down-Under which have over the last decades more or less been purpose-built or retrofitted for cars, it's hard to see how we can reasonably expect to get many of them on board for such an undertaking, at least from a full city-wide perspective.

The "Do-it-Yourself" Car Free Day

Happily, even if your city's administration does not announce its intention to organize a city-wide CFD of its own this year, this does not mean that you, your family, your football club or local labor union can't give it a try. And if you and a few other pioneers like you manage to pull off your own car free day demo this year, the next time around there are going to be more people and places that are ready to join you.

With a careful eye to getting the message across, Earth Car Free Day 2001 is going to celebrate the concept of the trickle-up or self-organized car free day. We are already working with national and city groups, and have every expectation that a good number of these are going to work out with city-wide programs. But if we ever to have 2001 CFDs this year -- or why not? two million and one -- we are going to have to do some imaginative outreaching. And a lot of self-organizing.