World Car-Free Day is a very important holiday on the environmental calendar. Every September 22, governments, green groups and ordinary citizens highlight the damage cars are doing to the Earth. The day is a reminder that we do not need to rely so much on cars. Those who take part hope others will realize we do not have to accept our car-dominated society. Carlos Pardo from Colombia's Sustainable Urban Transport Project summed things up, saying: "World Car-Free Day is not only a celebration of fun ways to get around the city, but a demonstration of what is possible: unclogged streets, clean air, and city traffic participants with their usual stress levels turned down drastically."

World Car-Free Day aims to take a sizeable number of cars off the streets for all or part of a day. This will give people a chance to see what their town might look like with a lot fewer cars. The idea for this day came in October 1994 at the International Accessible Cities Conference in Toledo, Spain. The first national campaign was held in Britain three years later. The European Union adopted the idea in 2000. Today, as many as 100 million people in over 1,500 cities worldwide celebrate this day. There are many critics of the day. They say it is a one-day gimmick and does not make people give up their cars for the rest of the year. They say what is needed is a move towards a more sustainable city transportation system.