Curbing Air Pollution : Car-Free Days

FACTBOX-Key facts on International Car-Free Day

Sept 22, 2005 (Reuters) - Around 100 million people around the world are expected to observe International Car-Free Day on Thursday.

Campaigns to reduce reliance on cars have been planned for over 1,500 cities in 40 countries and are designed to show alternatives to car use such as public transport and the promotion of car-free zones.

The eventual aim is to reduce air pollution, noise and overcrowding in cities.

Following are some facts about the day, road transport and its environmental impact:

- Initiated in France in 1998 as the "In town, without my car!" event, the day is now backed by the European Union on Sept. 22 every year as part of European Mobility Week.

- The number of cars around the world will increase from approximately 600 million in 2005 to about 1.2 billion by 2020, according to Forrester Research.

- The road transport sector accounts for 40 percent of all petroleum products consumed worldwide, according to the Paris-based French Petroleum Institute.

- The road transport sector generates more than one fifth of all emissions of carbon dioxide -- the greenhouse gas linked to global warming -- in the European Union, with passenger cars being responsible for more than half of these emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.

- The European auto industry promised in 1999 to cut emissions of carbon dioxide to 140 grams per car per km driven by 2008 and to 120 g/km by 2012, compared with 185 g/km in 1995. Their Japanese and Korean counterparts have pledged to reach the same level in 2009.

- Estimates of road fatalities worldwide range from 500,000 to 880,000 every year, with about 10 million injured. Some forecasts say deaths could reach two million by 2030.

- Most of the historic city of Venice is car-free and more than 150 Italian cities have a ban on cars on Sundays. The Greek capital Athens limits the entry of cars into the city centre - only cars with odd licence numbers are allowed on odd dates and even licence numbers on even dates.

Sources: EU website - www.22september.org ; World Carfree Network's website - www.worldcarfree.net ; Canada's - www.carfreeday.ca ; T (Compiled by Editorial Reference Unit researchers in Bangalore; edited by Joe Ortiz)>