Car-Free Day boosts local transit

Chapel Hill and Carrboro joined more than 1,400 towns and cities across the nation and 37 countries worldwide to celebrate Wednesday as Car-Free Day.

The purpose of the day was to raise awareness about alternative transportation options to single-use vehicles.

"We feel that the day was a great success," said James Carnahan, spokesman for the Village Project Inc., the environmental awareness group that sponsored the event locally.

Despite promotions for Car-Free Day, ridership on Chapel Hill Transit buses for Wednesday didn't show a huge increase from the numbers it typically sees, said Kurt Neufang, assistant director of Chapel Hill Transit.

"That is to be expected because we offer fare-free services," Neufang said, adding that some routes did show increases.

Ridership on the U bus route, which mainly serves the campus, was up 11 percent from the previous day. The N bus route - servicing Estes Drive, UNC Hospitals and Odum Village - was up 16 percent. Routes servicing park-and-ride lots also showed a small increase in users, Neufang said.

Randy Young, spokesman for the University's Department of Public Safety, noted that UNC's park-and- ride lot at the Friday Center was at or near capacity on Wednesday but said that is not unusual.

"The day was successful not only for the ridership increases, but also for the awareness that it created," Neufang said. "Certainly, the increase on the U bus route shows the increase in student awareness."

The Village Project received almost 1,700 pledges from people who said that they either would cut back on or eliminate the use of their cars for the day.

The Car-Free Day Web site generated 810 pledges, and an additional 800 to 900 were received from another pledge source based in the Research Triangle Park. Carnahan said some overlap was likely.

"Our goal was to get 1,000 pledges, and we're definitely pleased with this response," he said.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce was a valuable asset in publicizing the event and contributed to its success, Carnahan said.

The chamber helped the Village Project contact the press, plan the preliminary pledge-signing event for Sept. 7 and place banners and signs at strategic locations on buses and across town.

"We think that the event had an impact and definitely brought attention to the issues at hand," Carnahan said.

Since the inception of the event seven years ago, this is the first year that the celebration has not included a street closing.

A section of the street usually is closed off for exhibitors and other demonstrations, Carnahan explained, adding that they would like to reinstitute this tradition next year.

"We would like to have a car-free day every day so people could either walk, bike or ride with us," Neufang said. "It keeps congestion off the roadways and makes getting around much easier and safer."

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.