1) In Greece, the European Day Without Cars is celebrated each year on September 22nd, where major city centers are closed to cars and citizens are encouraged to use public transportation, bicycles, or other non-petrol methods of transportation. 2) Students in Greece gathered information showing cars have increased 190% since 1990, and cars are the source of 80% of air pollution in Athens. 3) The students created models of a car-less city, wrote essays encouraging less car use, and drew pictures imagining cleaner cities without car emissions to showcase their support of reducing car dependency.

1. Comenius

2. “HOW SCHOOLCHILDREN CAN
CONTRIBUTE TO KEEPING OUR
PLANET GREEN AND CLEAN”

3. A Day without Cars
How this day is celebrated in Greece

4. The European Day without cars started in France in 1998
and was established on a European level in 2000. More
than 1500 cities in Europe celebrate this day. Every year, on
the 22nd of September local authorities close the city centres
to cars and encourage citizens to use public transportation,
bicycles or any other means of transport that do not need
petrol .

5. What happens on the 22nd of
September
∗ In Greece, major cities take part in the celebration.
The city centres are closed and people use their
bicycles. Public transport is free on this day to raise
public awareness. Also various events take place
promoting ecological means of transport.
∗ Unfortunately, no events were organised this year in
Samos so students were involved only in school
activities.

6. ∗ Students were told about the ‘Day without cars’ and
were asked to find information about it.

7. This is the information the students gathered:
∗ The number of cars in Greece has increased 190% since
1990
∗ 35,000 cars are illegally parked daily in Athens
∗ 140,000,000 € was the cost of advertising for new
cars in 2004
∗ 56% of vehicles in Athens have only one passenger
∗ 80% of the atmospheric pollution in Athens is from
cars (Athens has a serious smog problem)
∗ Every year 150,000 new cars are bought in Athens
with the total number of cars reaching 3,000,000
∗ There is one car for every two Greeks
∗ Greece comes out top in the E.U. as far as weekly use
of cars is concerned before Italy, France and Spain
The following graph clearly shows the statistics

8. As can be seen here
Greece is above other
European countries as far
as using a car is
concerned. It seems we
use our cars almost twice
as much .

9. ∗ Students realise the need to use cars less and to
prefer other means of transport which are friendlier
to the environment. They created a model city
without cars where people use bicycles.

10. Students also wrote a
short essay
encouraging other
students to avoid
using cars for short
distances

11. ∗ Students created
posters showing
a city polluted by
car fumes.

12. They drew pictures of
how they imagine a
city without cars
would be like

13. Students discussed the
advantages of using
bicycles. They also
realised that living in a
mountainous village
using a bicycle is not
always possible. They
suggested improving
public transport and car
pooling.

14. Participating students
E class