The Dublin Cycling Campaign is an independent, voluntary lobby group that has been working to improve the city for all cyclists for over a decade and a half.
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Car Free Day
Car-Free Day 2003
Throughout Europe, Car-Free Day is celebrated on the 22nd September each year. In 2000, Dublin City Council (or Dublin Coporation as they were then known) marked the day by closing off a number of city centre streets. The only motorised traffic allowed through on the Friday afternoon were buses and other commercial vehicles. It was a marvellous success with marked reductions in both noise and air pollution on the day. The public seemed to agree as a survey carried out showed that 89% of those surveyed in Dublin wanted to see a repeat of Car-Free Day.
However since then, Car-Free Day has seen increasingly less comittment from Dublin City Council. In 2001 (on a Saturday), they closed off Custom House Quay and some of the the streets around Merrion Square. The following year (a Sunday) they merely closed off Parliament St to stage a little fun-fair.
This year, the DCC learned that they were planning to close off no streets at all. Volunteers from the DCC then decided to hold a 'funeral' for the perceived death of Car Free Day. Brendan Sheehan composed a press release and our PRO, David Maher informed the media of our plans.
Monday the 22nd dawned - appropriately enough - rainy, blustery and grey. At 1pm, a handful of black-clad cyclists gathered at Wood Quay. A gloomy tombstone constructed by Will Andrews was assembled and a letter from campaign chairperson Kirsten Doherty was handed in to the City Council.
Green Party TDs Eamon Ryan and Ciaran Cuffe arrived, followed by journalists, photographers and cameramen who eventually outnumbered the campaigners! Quickfire interviews were given by David to several journalists and photos and video of the tombstone were taken. Both RTE and TV3 covered the event in their news programmes that evening as well as the various radio stations and newspapers.
The media coverage was amazing. Traffic's a big story in Dublin at the moment, but having our views so well put forward by David on so many media outlets really boosts our potential to influence the city's growth, and make things that bit better for cyclists. Well done to everyone involved and a special thanks to Will for the work he put into creating the tombstone.
Later that evening, a number of DCC members participated in a hybrid Critical Mass / Reclaim The Streets event which managed to safely close off sections of various city centre streets including O'Connell St., Westmoreland St., Aston Quay and Dame St. between the hours of 5.00 and 7.00 pm.
