a day without cars

Comenius

“HOW SCHOOLCHILDREN CAN CONTRIBUTE TO

KEEPING OUR PLANET GREEN AND CLEAN”

A Day without CarsHow this day is celebrated in Greece

The European Day without cars started in France in 1998 and was established on a European level

in 2000. More than 1500 cities in Europe celebrate this day. Every year, on the 22nd of

September local authorities close the city centres to cars and encourage citizens to use public

transportation, bicycles or any other means of transport that do not need petrol .

In Greece, major cities take part in the celebration. The city centres are closed and people use their bicycles. Public transport is free on this day to raise public awareness. Also various events take place promoting ecological means of transport.

Unfortunately, no events were organised this year in Samos so students were involved only in school activities.

What happens on the 22nd of September

Students were told about the ‘Day without cars’ and were asked to find information about it.

The number of cars in Greece has increased 190% since 1990 35,000 cars are illegally parked daily in Athens 140,000,000 € was the cost of advertising for new cars in 2004 56% of vehicles in Athens have only one passenger 80% of the atmospheric pollution in Athens is from cars (Athens

has a serious smog problem) Every year 150,000 new cars are bought in Athens with the total

number of cars reaching 3,000,000 There is one car for every two Greeks Greece comes out top in the E.U. as far as weekly use of cars is

concerned before Italy, France and Spain The following graph clearly shows the statistics

This is the information the students gathered:

As can be seen here Greece is above other European countries as far as using a car is concerned. It seems we use our cars almost twice as much .

Students realise the need to use cars less and to prefer other means of transport which are friendlier to the environment. They created a model city without cars where people use bicycles.

Students also wrote a short

essay encouraging other students to avoid using cars

for short distances

Students created posters showing a city polluted by car fumes.

They drew pictures of how they

imagine a city without cars would

be like

Students discussed the advantages of using bicycles. They also realised that living in a mountainous village using a bicycle is not always possible. They suggested improving public transport and car pooling.

Participating students E class