As you may have already seen on the front page of your Decatur Focus, next Wednesday, September 22nd is “Car-Free” Day in Decatur.

The city encourages residents to go “car-free” for the day and plans to hand out special stickers for those who walk or bike (or rollerblade or unicycle, I assume) up to the Concert on the Square at noon on Wednesday.

In a similar vein, the car-sharing company, Zipcar, is currently hosting it’s annual “low-car diet” program, where participants agree to give up their car for 30 days, posting stories and little tidbits along the way.  According to Atlanta Intown, “61 percent of the 2009 participants said they planned to go “car-free” after the 30-day challenge. Additionally, participants increased their miles biked by 132 percent, decreased their miles driven by 66 percent and lost a total of 413 pounds.”

Could you go car-free for a month in Atlanta?  The 2010 Decatur Citizen Survey (pdf) showed that only 14% of daily commutes involved walking, biking or public transportation as the primary means of getting to work.

Also, is there anything that the city of Decatur could be doing that would make you less car-dependent?

Dan Magee writes in with word that next Wednesday, September 24th is Car-Free Day in Decatur.  Not only does that mean the ultra-obvious, but it also means a Blue Sky Concert on the Square at noon!

Unfortunately that also means I can’t participate.  Though I am now taking the MARTA train to work at least once a week, Wednesdays are the one weekday when “no car” makes “no sense” for me.  So, I guess I’ll have to make Tuesday my official Car-Free day and just duck below the dash as I burn fossil fuels past the mayor’s house on Wednesday.

Hopefully I don’t miss any car-free dance parties that spontaneously break out on the MARTA platform.  That would really burn my biscuits.

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