Ethiopia and Rwanda frontrunners of the #CarFreeDays Initiative

Car-free days have been successfully implemented in cities across both Rwanda and Ethiopia. The initiative’s aim is to ease traffic congestion, promote green transport, reduce carbon emission and encourage people to exercise. The city’s main roads are closed temporarily for residents to walk, jog or ride bicycles to make their way around.

According to the initiative’s explanation, September 22^nd is marked globally as the World Car-Free Day to encourage motorists to give up cars for a day and for cities to realize how much pollution affects lives. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution alone caused approx. 4.2 million deaths in 2016.

Car Free Day therefore attempts take the strain off the planet for a day by encouraging people to be less dependent on their cars and try alternatives. Countries have however taken on the challenge to make it a more regular occurrence.

Rwanda which is one of these countries is more of a veteran in the initiative as it launched Car-Free Day in 2016 in Kigali and has since made it a bi-monthly event. Even the country’s head of state President Paul Kagame has joined hundreds of Kigali residents to exercise.

Read: How change happened in Ethiopia: a review of how Abiy rose to power

Chantal Rwakazina, Kigali city Mayor told the New Times last year that, “When it was starting, the people attending were very few but now the number is growing; and this is a good indicator. We now hold the car-free day twice a month because people asked for it. And we are thinking of doing a quick survey with the participants to see if they want to have it more frequently.”

Beautiful Vitamin D filled #CarFreeDay Sunday in #MyKigali. Love seeing wellness enthusiasts out there enjoy our clean green streets🙌🏾🙌🏾.

Thankful yet again of our #Leadership, which is for the people🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/ddeq62ZrCS

— L.Nshuti Mbabazi (@LucyMbabazi) January 6, 2019

@CityofKigali is a beautiful city and when it comes to a #CarFreeDay it is Rwandaful ,
Physical activities meet the verdancy and cleanliness of #Kigali #GoodHealth #BeatNCDs #HealthyPeople pic.twitter.com/2iA2IdlvjA

— Phn. Mutabazi J Claude (@mutabaziclaude2) January 6, 2019

Following closely second is Ethiopia which this month hosted its third Car- Free Day. February 3, 2019, saw all sorts of enthusiasts including footballers, runners, skateboarders and agile Ethiopians storm the empty streets to take advantage of the traffic free roads.

https://twitter.com/Our_Ethiopiaa/status/1092416280265740290

Their previous Car-Free Day was also equally filled with joviality and mass enthusiasm

On behalf @FMoHealth, I would like to say thank you for everyone who attended the second #CarFreeDay in all the cities.

Our goal is loud and clear: #HealthyCitizens 🏃🏽‍♀️🏃🏽‍♂️🚲 and #PollutionFree #Ethiopia 🇪🇹

Do your part, join us next month ! pic.twitter.com/xtPuWr2l7D

— Amir Aman, MD (@amirabiy) January 13, 2019

Happened today: @FMoHealth granted 12,231 bicycles for the cities who were pioneer in the #CarFreeDay initiative. #Exercise 🚲🏃🏽‍♀️🏊🏽‍♂️🤾🏽‍♂️🏋🏽‍♀️ – let’s make it a habit#beatNCD pic.twitter.com/uZqYfRFhjX

— Amir Aman, MD (@amirabiy) January 13, 2019

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Unfortunately, some African countries have been unable to replicate the amazing fete. Kenya for example attempted to implement a car-free day in the Central Business District of its capital in February but suspended the programme “for more consultation”.

For the sake of the environment and all-round wellness the hope is other countries will soon follow suit in implementing the initiative as a regular occurrence.