Climate justice. Environmental justice. Economic justice. Spatial justice. All these terms ring hollow in the face of the continuing domination of the rich and powerful over the vulnerable. One of the many ways in which that domination takes practical form is in the use of automobiles in the city in the last hundred years or so.

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Cars in our cities are related to several injustices. There is the climate, where those who are responsible for burning the most fossil fuel are the least likely to be affected by the floods, fires, droughts, intense storms, and other catastrophes that ensue. There is danger, wherein car users make the streetscape unsafe, with most of those dying on the roads being poor.

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There is economic injustice when governments spend billions of dollars on road infrastructure that mainly benefits car users while failing to invest in infrastructure for walking, cycling, and public transportation. [Can add local examples here.] There is spatial injustice when our streets and other public spaces are littered with cars, but children and others have few places to socialize outdoors. And there is environmental injustice when the richest create pollution (including but not limited to air and noise) that the poorest must endure.

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In light of the harm that cars do to our cities—and the many ways in which they are connected to injustice—the Carfree Cities Alliance has designated the theme of World Carfree Day (22 September) 2023 as “Carfree Cities: Justice in Motion.” Events in cities across the world—discussions, outdoor games, open street events, joint walks, bicycle rides, talk shows, and other interactive events—will illustrate the many ways in which carfree cities (where cars are greatly limited or eliminated) promote justice. [Add about your own planned events.]

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Even where cars are not the dominant form of transport, the roads are clogged with cars. [Can add figures here on modal share by car in your city.] Cars waste an inordinate amount of space both for movement and for storage, being the least efficient way to move about in a city; meanwhile, everyone else is shoved to the margins and stuck in traffic that they do not help to create. Urban dwellers are subjected to the filthy air and incessant honking caused by cars. If a child wishes to play in the ground floor parking area, he is told he might damage the cars. Farmers, fishermen, others who work outdoors, and those living in marginal areas are the first to bear the toll of the climate crisis, though they themselves contribute almost no greenhouse gas emissions.

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But the injustice of car-dominated cities could be flipped on its head to create the justice of carfree cities. People on foot and bicycle would be celebrated rather than punished for moving about without burning fuel or creating danger to others. It would become safe and pleasant to travel on foot and on a bicycle, thus contributing to making the city even better. Parks and playgrounds would proliferate in the absence of car infrastructure. The air would be vastly cleaner and fresher, the city would be more peaceful, and globally, greenhouse gas emissions would dramatically decline. People would move through the streets and enjoy outdoor spaces together, rather than some being isolated in one-ton steel boxes that make it difficult and dangerous for others to move about at all. Justice, rather than being a hollow concept with no practical applicability, could become the order of the day.

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The annual celebration of World Carfree Day [by (your organization) and others locally and internationally] is meant to illustrate how much better our cities could be with fewer or no cars and other individual motorized transport. The importance of making our cities more vital, lively, sociable, and just places is greater now than ever. Let’s make use of this year’s World Carfree Day celebration to envision cities where people can work together to make the concept of just cities a reality.

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--Debra Efroymson is active with the Carfree Cities Alliance and has given a TEDx talk on Imagining a Car-free City