Eric Britton, Earth Car Free Day

Eric Britton is an international consultant, author, and founder of The Commons, a Paris-based nonprofit organization cosponsoring Earth Car Free Day.

"G'day," sang the friendly voice on the other end of the line. "Eric is it? This is John. John Pinkard? From Fremantle?" (One of the great things about Australians and Canadians is that they often end even their most definitive sentences with the upward lilt of a question mark. It makes you think they are consulting you and value what you have to say. Great stuff! Gotta get that habit.)

The voice was fresh and lively. Why not? In Australia, it was mid-afternoon, peak concentration time. But here in Paris, it was only 7:00 a.m. on a gray Saturday morning, and while I was already at my desk, I hadn't even had my first coffee yet. Not fresh. Pull yourself together, my man. Focus!

I said, "Hi John, I guess you must calling about that great Shed A Car Day project this year. I hope you're not in trouble with it. After all, it was such a terrific event last year. And, by the way, thanks for signing in to this year's Earth Car Free Day database. This is terrific information for other cities and groups that are planning their car-free days. I'm sure glad to be able to post it for the crowd to see and benefit from."

He replied, "No, Eric, no problem there. But I have a question for you about dates. You see, last year we ran Shed A Car in late November, but this year we wanted to see if maybe we could coordinate with one of the international events. Your April deadline is just a tad close for us this year, since there is an awful lot left for us to do to get in shape here, given that this is a full-scale citywide event. We were thinking about maybe trying to run this year in rough parallel with the European events in September. What do you say?"

The last thing we wanted to do was to lose John and Fremantle from the movement just because of a date. Anyway, that has never been a problem for us, since we have always maintained that every day of the year is a great candidate for a car-free day. And since we want to get behind the European events in any way we can, what better way than to have groups at the other end of the earth running their own car-free days in rough parallel?

So I told him, "John, that strikes me as a first-class idea. But you know they are aiming for 22 Sep. 2001, a Saturday. I dunno for sure, but around here, we tend to like our car-free days on a weekday, rather than on the weekend where, in many cities, things tend to look quite different. The basic idea is for people to see a sharp contrast with the usual "car-full" weekday. But of course, that's your call."

John responded, "Well, good mate. We'll think about that one. I guess the Europeans will be just as happy if we do our thing a day or two earlier or later. Since we are almost halfway around the clock from you, we are as often as not a day away anyway."

I figured that we had given that topic its due and wanted to change the subject. The Fremantle volunteer group had recently completed a first-rate survey of the impacts of their Nov. 2000 Shed Your Car happening, and we have been looking for a way to draw it to the attention of those who are trying to get ready for the 19 Apr. 2001 event. Hmm.

So I said, "You know, John, I'd like to try an idea on you for size. In a moment of inattention, I committed myself to writing a series of shortish commentaries this week on this whole Earth Car Free Day business for the Grist Magazine people over in Seattle. And it occurs to me that maybe I could try writing something tomorrow about Fremantle, and your push to turn the Shed A Car Day into an all-Australia, volunteer-led annual event. But I may need some help?" (I was trying out the Australian rising lilt ending to see if I could make him my prisoner.)

I had a number of reasons up my sleeve for wanting to do this. Not least because I like their approach of starting with volunteers and then gradually piecing together a citywide alliance that not only draws in all the usual transportation and governance actors, and the environmental and sustainable transport action groups, but also the local business community. Their nice-and-easy approach has gained the enthusiastic support of local businesses by making them an active part of the planning and implementation process -- giving them a sense of ownership. It makes a terrific example for us all.

In fact, I like just about everything about the way they are tackling this, right down to the name. "Shed A Car" strikes me as a terrific temperature-lowering name, which draws a smile to the face. (It is surely a lot less aggressive than our phrase, "car-free," which to some extent is an albatross we have hung around our own necks.)

I also like the laid-back supporting events they are organizing, such as the Cycle Instead Breakfast, Walk Your Child to School, Walking Bus, Workplace Challenge Award, and the Slow Bike Race, together with first-rate, continuous media support and careful environmental monitoring.

So I finally say, "Okay John! I can try to write a piece on Shed A Car as my Saturday Grist contribution, but I really feel we should run it through your gang for comments before going to press. And since it is almost the end of the day over there in Fremantle, we may have an impossible timing problem."

John replied, "No, I don't think we do, Eric. We're used to that over here. Let's see, I'll go home and get some sleep now, while you hunker down and write that piece. Then you can email your draft to us at the end of your day — that will make it Saturday morning here in Fremantle. We can then get it back to you with our comments by the end of our day (which is the beginning of yours). That gives you time to give it a last whack before you send it off to Seattle, since they are 10 more hours behind you? Nothing to it, mate. Got it?"

Hmm, of course, that works out quite nicely. So I thanked John for his idea and cooperation and started to sign off. But he was not quite ready to let me go yet: "Well, y'know, Eric. It strikes me that all this is just one more example of how you can get Earth Car Free Day right. You keep saying that every day is a great candidate for a car-free day. And I say that if we get it right, then 'the sun never sets on Earth Car Free Day.'"

You're so right, John.