The Car Free Day steering committee, hosted by Commuter Connections, just finished up their last planning meeting for the big day. Even though I had to phone it in, I could just tell that the atmosphere in that room was electric! Well, it was noisy anyway—they’re very chatty. So many area organizations and governments have come together to get people excited about taking the pledge to go Car Free on September 22, and their efforts seem to be paying off. As of Wednesday, September 14 at 1:00 pm, we have 7,615 pledges – already more than the total number that pledged in 2010, and the number keeps climbing. In fact, I’m going to refresh the website page every five minutes to keep checking because, you know, I don’t have anything better to do.
Why go car free? Let’s review. It saves you money on gas and car maintenance, saves you the stress and hassle of fighting traffic, improves your health and reduces pollution caused by motor vehicles. Car Free Day is part of an international movement to introduce people to the world of other possibilities for travel. You can try walking, biking, rail or bus. You can even try car or vanpooling, which can get several cars off the road at a time and is a great way to go “car lite.”
It’s 1:05 pm. We’re up to 7,618 pledges. Thanks, three anonymous people!
In addition to feeling like a spectacular person of admirable character when you take the pledge, you’ll also be automatically eligible to win prizes, like a bike, an Apple iPad, tickets to Washington Nationals games, $25 SmarTrip cards, a Capital Bikeshare annual membership and more good stuff. The only thing I’ve ever won is a mug, so I’m pretty excited about this new prospect.
It’s 1:10, and we have 7,621 pledges. Three more—we’re on a roll!
Flippin’ Pizza recently got into the mix and added their support to Car Free Day with an offer of a coupon via email redeemable for free pizza and a soda for use until 4:00 pm on Car Free Day. That’s if you take the pledge by September 19, so you better get right on that.
It is now 1:15 pm, and only one more person has pledged. Gah! Come on people!
Later that same day, you can come out and celebrate your ultimate sacrifice at the Capital Bikeshare Birthday Bash at the Yards Park from 6-9 pm.
1:20 pm, and we’re at 7,625 pledges. And yes, it did just take me five minutes to write one sentence and not even a good one.
So it looks like, we’re getting roughly three pledges every five minutes. By my typically inaccurate calculations, which do factor in the possibility that people won’t be running to their computers to register at 2 am, we’ll be close to reaching our goal of 10,000 by the 22nd – but we’ll need to step it up a bit to exceed it. Remember, you can still take the pledge even if you already go car free or car-lite. To pledge, visit www.carfreemetrodc.com. Please register and help the DC region make a strong showing on Car Free Day!
