I am sure that "Car free Day" is not trending topic or something hot anymore. It has been implemented in many big cities in this world. People enjoy the day with their friends and family. They walk while having conversation. Some of them ride their bike for having fun and relieving the stress. Those are benefits of car free day. Many people use the occasion as chance for gathering with others.

In my previous city, "Car free day " is on every sunday morning. It was nice and I participated several times (I am quite lazy to wake up earlier). Absolutely it was nice, but I just wonder why do people forget about the day without vehicles tomorrow? I mean, Palembang, my previous city,  is heaven for drivers. You can find many people drive various type of vehicle. The absolute thing is, all vehicles use fossil fuel. So, everyday is full of air pollution except Sunday morning.

Then, when I moved to Jakarta, I am quite surprised. Yes, there is "car free day " too! What I get from this city is still same as Palembang. On Monday they forget everything. With fossil fueled vehicles, they go to many places.

Yes, we can not deny, fast vehicle is essential need. So do I. I need vehicle. But there are certain community who campaign the usage of eco vehicle. " Bike to Work " is one of the active community here. This community campaign to use bicycle to go to work. So the members everyday use bicycle to work. Even one of my friends is inspired by this community. Last year, she used bicycle to work. But later on, she stopped to bike.

Why did she stop? The answer is safety. Many roads in Indonesia are not suitable for pedestrians and bikers. Some of them lack of pedestrian zones or special lane for bikers. Even if there are available, people convert their function to car parking zone or food stall zones. I ever walk on a street and I need to be careful of another vehicles in order to avoid being hit. You can ask some of your friends who have visited Indonesia before. I am quite sure they will say that Indonesians are lazy to walk, they love to use car or motor cycle. In this case, I have no intention to say something bad about my own country, please take it as an example :)

So, back to " car free day". I guess the day is intended to educate people on how reducing vehicle usage is beneficial. We will be healthy due to walking or riding a bike. The rate of air pollution can be decrease if we do it consistently and the last is energy saving. But many people seem forget or no get those messages. They just see the day as gathering chance or stress relief.

It seems the 15^th term should put many efforts for conveying the true messages of this. I hope the best for you. Thanks for reading.  

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