We take for granted that cars are a necessary tool to move around. What we forget is that cars as the center of mobility did not happen by accident, but rather was a deliberate ploy by car companies to force people into car ownership. The results include the climate crisis, environmental pollution, social isolation, and many diseases as well as car crashes, among others.

Just as “Another World is Possible”, so too another transport system is possible, one that would restore our environments and communities, as well as saving us vast amounts of time, space, and money. Join us in this workshop to consider how we are fooled by the car industry (and its friends, the fuel and road-building industries) and how we can regain our freedom…and our lives.

In this interactive workshop, participants will be given a budget which they can decide to spend. As individuals, they can choose to spend thousands of dollars a year on a car, or invest it in other things; as governments, they can invest billions of dollars into car-based infrastructure or spend it on health, education, social welfare, environmental restoration, etc.

Note to CCA organizers: We can also discuss how South Asia and the rest of the Majority World are doing much better in terms of sustainable mobility than are the US/Canada/Australia.

Talk about how capitalism plays out in transport systems: people exist to buy corporate goods, in this case cars and motorbikes; we have horrible public transit and walking and cycling infrastructure due to the need to pressure people to buy cars to feed into economic growth.

The point we hope for the participants to walk away with is that cars are central to the problems in our lives; car-free cities are a practical and necessary solution to the climate crisis, pollution, poor health, social isolation, etc.

We could give everyone Monopoly money and have facilitators selling cars, bicycles, etc., and let people decide how to allocate their money. And then discuss how we are turned into consumers, not citizens, and sustainable mobility is a form of rebellion against corporate control/capitalism.

Carfree Cities Alliance: 
We are an international network of individuals and organisations who believe that cities could be vastly better if we were to focus on the needs of people and nature rather than on the needs of motorized vehicles. On the global level, we provide information tools and inspiration to partners while we promote the carfree concept. On the local level, we work closely with teams and organisations around the world to create changes in their cities whether through policy grassroots events or a combination of approaches. 

Declaration
1.    On behalf of the Alliance, we invite interested individuals, organisations, and networks to become members of the Carfree Cities Alliance. We want to build a stronger alliance to support Carfree initiatives around the globe. 
2.    From the next edition of the World Social Forum onwards we would like sustainable non-motorized transport and Carfree Cities to become the mainstream topic of discussion along with the rest of the issues. 
3.    If you support our work, endorse us and help us reach out to groups/countries where there is potential for bringing the desired change in road design, city planning and making our cities livable again.