Street Party for International No Car Day next Sunday Florence Road N4 (southern end) 2-4 pm 22 Sept

edited September 2019 in Sharing
To celebrate this event members of our Local Neighbourhood Watch are organising a street party which will include:

A tea and cake stall

Bric-a-brac table including some vinyl record

Book exchange for people to donate/exchange/purchase

Craft table for handmade greeting cards

Children’s Games – including special pass the parcel

A Clothes rack (people to be able to exchange or donate)

Live Music

Mini painting/picture gallery (people to display pictures)

And more!

Everyone is welcome to join in the fun

Comments

  • Nice typo. Abstaining from driving?
  • Good idea. Wish Victoria and Florence were both car free everyday!
  • grennersgrenners Ferme Park Road, N4
    Absolutely no cars whatsoever including electric and hybrid?
  • Pollution isn't the only negative
  • @grenners the mad rush to electric has its own issues for the climate and ecological emergency. find out about SF6 gas, currently widely used in the electric infrastructure. it's leaking everywhere and is more than 23,000 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and because it's a synthetic gas, it doesn't break down in the atmosphere (like, ever!). early days yet, but already soaring emissions of this gas being seen due to expanding electrics. anyone serious about their kids' future needs to be calling for a rapid move away from private transport ownership and into subsidising much improved public transport and car sharing/pooling schemes. the science is clear, but the political will is understandably years behind.
    anyone wanting to help change this state of affairs should consider joining the #EarthStrike tomorrow.
  • grennersgrenners Ferme Park Road, N4
    OK. I'll go along with that because it acknowledges serious improvement needed in car pooling etc. We can't live in a situation where we need to visit the other end of the country and a train ticket costs hundreds per person unless booked months in advance and requires transport at the other end, prohibitive for a family and car share is booked up. What annoys me is the anti car lobby not providing a solution. Banning cars without serious alternatives just inhibits people's freedoms in my view.
  • edited September 2019
    I was in Lithuania not so long ago where they have a GENUINE car pooling service whereby you can pick them up and drop them off as you wish. It is an affordable, useful service.

    Here Zip Car and the like just try to rip you off, it is so frustrating.

    I must say though that I have been using Lime and Uber Bikes lately, they are great.
  • "Banning cars without serious alternatives just inhibits people's freedoms in my view."

    The idea that travel becoming more inconvenient undermines some sacred principle, and that such a principle is more important than stopping the collapse of the ecosystem that is predicted to cause the death and mass-movement of hundreds of millions of people, has always struck me as somewhat baffling.

    We all want more efficient public transport, and it's an achievable goal. But even if it wasn't an achievable goal we'd still need far fewer private vehicles. As Monbiot puts it - public luxury, private sufficiency.

    Given how the domination of private vehicles has ruined our cities we should still want rid even if there wasn't a climate emergency.
  • ''Given how the domination of private vehicles has ruined our cities we should still want rid even if there wasn't a climate emergency.''

    Very true, unless you need a van to carry equipment, or you're a public transpo vehicle/ambo, there is no need for a private car (in the city, those in the countryside obviously still need them). We've become dependent on them and haven't noticed that our standard of living is far reduced as a consequence.

    Imagine our streets with much, much less noise, virtually no pollution and a space that you can walk or cycle down without worrying about your kids being run over-> think more Parkland walks!

    It's pretty easy to hire a car for holidays?
  • grennersgrenners Ferme Park Road, N4
    I'm referring to an idea of people being able to make the decision in 5 minutes to be able to drive to wherever, at a whim or for an emergency and not need to book in advance to get a better price or travel to pick up a vehicle. I'm coming at it from the perspective of being able to be spontaneous which some consider a luxury. I would consider a norm. I totally get the possibility of an improved environment but it's a balance. Does everyone want to cycle to work in the pissing rain and dark, even if there were no dangers?
    I did borrow a Zip van once to drive to near Guilford, a rural area, to pick up some furniture from a colleague. It was stressful because we agreed on the Friday I would come the following day. I booked the Zip van but it needed to be back later in the afternoon for its next booking. Won't do that again. It was fairly economic overall but a very nice day and I was enjoying eating a massive cake (that I had taken as a gift) and forgot to leave on time. So I wouldn't bother getting rid of a car and relying on a pool car following that experience. Also electric vehicles are not yet good enough for long distances and hybrids tend to be more expensive than petrol.
    Maybe my idea of a future is a clean environment where everyone has an emission free silent space pod. There is a reason why people have cars and that's because they don't want to be left without an option.
  • "Does everyone want to cycle to work in the pissing rain and dark, even if there were no dangers?"

    Cycle or public transport. What if the IPCC are right (and I'd guess neither of us are qualified to argue with them) and the alternative is that or catastrophe? Isn't it now simply a fact that the 'norm', as you put it, can no longer continue? How will future generations judge us for choosing our convenience over their survival? These are no longer abstract questions.
  • Alot of people in our society do see driving as a right and this needs to change. Everyday, I see people driving in such a careless and dangerous way that they should be taken off the road. It just seems to be accepted.
  • grennersgrenners Ferme Park Road, N4
    Agreed. Less traffic and more parking spaces if that happened.
  • edited September 2019
    We do not own a car and I cannot see any earthly reason why we would. We live in a city with a pretty good and wide ranging public transport network. I can get home from work in Central London safely and easily at any time of the day or night. We hire a car two or three times a year for holiday or to transport wares to the occasional market.
    We've just come back from the Yorkshire Dales where it's much more difficult, but not impossible, to travel by public transport. The 'village' of 25 houses and a postbox near the farm we camped on has a branch line that runs four trains tghrough the morning and six in the afternoon/evening stopping at all the local villages to connect people to Leeds or Carlisle. There's a decent bus network too.
    I take the point that for emergencies some people might need a car or two sat outside their house 24 hours a day, and I'm sure it's very convenient for those who spontaneously want to pop off to somewhere utterly unreachable by public transport of any kind at 3am.
    I just can't see how it's sustainable for the future.
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