During the weekend I learned about the World Carfree Day which was celebrated in 1,500 cities across several countries on Saturday, September 22. It was quite big in Brazil and for good reason too. The statistics reveal that 35,000 people die in car accidents per year in the country and over the last eight years there were 2.5 million accidents, costing the country’s health care system about $12bn per year. Alcohol use is involved in 70% of the cases and 80% of fatal victims are men. 
I’ll have to get personal here now to add a dimension of reality to the statistics above. I was raised in Brazil and have lost two really good friends as well as my father on the road. Deaths caused by car accidents are very traumatic experiences and difficult to accept; they always seem premature, much more so than the ones by illness.
I do concede that cars alone are not to blame; road maintenance and cultural attitudes play a significant role as well. But while the car industry keeps selling unnecessarily fast automobiles as status symbols to impressionable males (and females), it is also accountable for the carnage that goes on around the world.
Governments have to find ways to cut back on car usage, stamp big DRIVING CAN KILL warnings on vehicles and humanize public space again. Pedestrians have the right to walk without having to breathe in someone else’s fumes. Isn’t that the reason that cigarettes have been banned everywhere?
Give your legs a chance, they like and need to be used, that’s how the human animal evolved. Have a look at my first blog on Energy Refuge on the joys of cycling, hopefully that will inspire you to get pedaling more often.
And here’s the website of World Carfree Day.
