Bike-day= car-free day?

Something cool I found when doing some research on transportation in Los Angeles. The idea is that individuals are the ones to take the initiative on getting things done with the city. The guy the article talks about is named Vinay Jayaswal, from India. He talks about thinking globally and acting individually. His main concerns, namely in India, are the environment, sanitation, and health within individual communities. This got me thinking about the bike share program (and biking in general as an alternative to driving) and how this directly addresses two of these issues, if not all three. It clearly helps the environment by redicung emissions and thus reducing pollution. And it also helps the health by giving those who do ride some excercise, which is still an issue for our over-eating, under-exercising American population.

The article continues to talk about certain efforts of cities to reduce car use. New York, where I am from, shut down Times Square, arguably the most busy area of America, during most hours of the day and making it a pedestrian zone only. Granted this makes it difficult to get around the city in a car at times, but it is pretty cool to be able to walk around manhattan in the streets with no worries of being run over by cabbies. Second, the most congested city in the world (according to the post) is Mumbai in India, and they have a "Car-Free Day" on February 21st. I say, if mumbai can do that, I think Eagle Rock could pull something off along those lines. Maybe once the bike-share program launches, we dedicate one day to those who work/study locally to walk or bike to work or school, rather than driving locally throughout Eagle Rock. Clearly some people have to drive to get places, but Eagle Rock is pretty managable on a bike or on foot; I did it all of last year.

Here is the link to the article: http://la.streetsblog.org/2010/02/09/individuals-can-make-a-difference-a-view-from-india/.

Just some food for thought.