| No Car Days in Kunming, China |
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| Written by Joshua Liberles | |
| Monday, 26 November 2007 | |
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Kunming, the capital of Southwest China’s Yunnan province, has become China’s first city to institute a monthly “No Car Day.” The fourth Saturday of each month, the city bans private cars within Kunming’s ring road from 9am to 7pm. Kunming was one of over 100 Chinese cities to ban private cars from downtown on September 22nd for World Car Free Day. Although other Chinese cities reported minimal impacts to people’s behavior and downtown traffic, Kunming’s effort reported a significant decrease in pollution. From Go Kunming: According to municipal government statistics, September's no-car day had a significant effect on air quality. Carbon monoxide levels dropped 32.9 percent, nitrogen dioxide levels dropped 45.1 percent, ozone was down 39.5 percent, carbon dioxide was down 15.4 percent and airborne particulate matter was reduced by more than one-fifth. Based upon this initial success, Kunming’s government decided to make downtown car-free on a monthly basis. Downtown streets will be open to buses, taxis, electric scooters, and bicycles.
Via Go Kunming. Photo via flickr by The Gonger
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Cars are the most inconvenient convenience we have. We're required to have them, but increasingly, we dislike them. At Carectomy, we're trying to figure out how to extract cars from people.
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