Pooling noted in 500 vehicles on Car Free Day

More than 500 cars were noted carrying three or more passengers on Car Free Day last Thursday.

A spokesman for the Environment Ministry said yesterday this did not mean that only 500 car owners decided to take the government's advice to resort to car pooling; these were the number of cars spotted by wardens, most of them in St Anne Street, Floriana.

Five hundred cars with a minimum of three individuals meant 1,500 rather than 500 people in 500 cars - a potential reduction of 1,000 cars, assuming that the people in question were not in the habit of pooling cars, the spokesman said.

Having so many people pooling cars, the spokesman added, showed it was a positive experiment.

Asked whether Car Free Day had been successful, considering that no roads were closed to traffic and many still used their cars, the spokesman said there were so many road projects underway that to have even more restrictions did not make sense as this would have led to widespread traffic jams.

This was not the reason, however, why pooling was stressed. The European theme was Clever Commuting which aimed at coming up with smart solutions. So even the EU moved from normal restrictions to other means of reducing the number of cars on the road, the spokesman added.

The spokesman said the aim of Car Free Day was to raise awareness in the hope that the same behaviour on the day would also be adopted throughout the other days of the year.