Thousands of people have fun at In Town Without My Car Day
26 September 2016
The popular In Town Without My Car Day proved to be a hit with young and old alike again this year with thousands of people sliding, climbing and biking around as part of the event today.
More than 8,000 people were there to try the waterslide, climbing tower, bike try-outs, and the buses along with other stalls at the event, which was free to highlight what fun alternatives there are to using a car.
Many families walked or cycled to the event held in Aberdeen city centre with streets closed off especially for the day which was held as part of European Mobility Week.
Following the fun-filled day, Aberdeen City Council Regeneration and Transport spokesman Councillor Ross Grant said: “We had more than 8,000 people here for the event which is a tremendous number and we’re sure a great time was had by all.
“We want to encourage more people to look at alternative methods of transport than their car so we hope today’s event helped to highlight how easy, fun and money-saving walking, cycling, using buses or the CoWheels car club can be.
“We want to raise awareness about what the City Council is doing to encourage usage of these alternative modes of transport all year round, not just once a year during In Town Without My Car Day.
“We’d love to know what people think about using these alternative forms of transport.”
People are being asked to comment on the City Council’s five year Active Travel Action Plan which outlines what actions Aberdeen City Council wants to take to ensure walking and cycling are convenient, safe, comfortable, healthy and attractive choices of travel for everyday journeys.
The Active Travel Plan can be viewed at http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/planning_environment/planning/transport/pla_transportstrategy.asp and the closing date for the public consultation is 10 November.
Other stalls at today’s event included face-painting, free bike maintenance checks, cycle tips from Evans Cycles and Alpine Bikes, and GetAbout, which is a website which helps people find the best way of travelling about Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire (http://getabout.org.uk/).