World Car-Free Day
Next: September 22, 2027
Streets for people, one day a year.
The story
Where it comes from
Car-free days were tried in several European cities during the 1970s oil crises and revived in the 1990s. France's 'En ville, sans ma voiture!' campaign on 22 September 1998 set the date, the European Union adopted it in 2000, and it is now held in cities worldwide as World Car-Free Day, often as the closing event of European Mobility Week.
How it's celebrated
Cities close major roads to cars for the day and fill them with cyclists, walkers, street markets and performances. Bogotá, Paris, Jakarta and Brussels are among the largest; Jakarta's Sunday car-free mornings, begun in 2007, now happen every week.
Did you know
- Bogotá's Ciclovía, which closes over 120 kilometres of streets to cars every Sunday, has run since 1974 and draws more than a million people a week.
- Road transport produces roughly three-quarters of transport-related carbon emissions worldwide.
Coming up next
- International Day of Sign Languages · September 23, 2027
- World Gorilla Day · September 24, 2027
- World Pharmacists Day · September 25, 2027
- European Day of Languages · September 26, 2027
- World Rivers Day · September 26, 2027
- International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons · September 26, 2027