The idea is to keep as many private vehicles off the road as possible. The practice has been tried and tested in several other countries and has been a great success. Following are certain quick points that give an idea as to how this one ‘No Driving Day’ can help:

• Spread awareness: The largest of all aims is to spread ‘awareness’ about vehicular pollution. The more the people will spread the word and discuss, the more they will get to know about the ‘environmental challenge’ that vehicular pollution causes.
  
  India is one of the largest automobile markets, with the most numbers of two-wheelers and cars being sold every day. All drivers have to be aware of the pollution their vehicles create.
  
  
• Save environment: Just one day of restraint can actually bring down the CO2 emission levels drastically.
  
  It has been tried and scientifically proven that just one non-emission day can make a great difference
  
  
• Save fuel: We are anyway heading towards a global fuel crisis.
  The International Energy Agency (IEA) says India's fuel demand will grow by 65,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2010, to about 3.33 million bpd. Next year, fuel demand will grow by 107,000 bpd, to 3.43 million bpd.
  
  Restraining from burning 5-10 litres in a day, even by 10,000 people, will mean saving about 100,000 litres! The more the volunteers on that day, the more will be the fuel in reserve.
  
  
• Boost to public transport: Encouraging people to not drive on one day will be a boost to the public transport system. Since more people will be boarding the buses or the local trains/metro, or will travel by taxi/auto rickshaw, the public transport mediums will earn that extra revenue.
  
  The transport exchequer may use that one day’s extra revenue to upgrade the facilities.
  
  
• Encourage cycling and walking: Dependence on private vehicles even for short-distance travel (to a nearby market, for instance) has resulted in a sedentary lifestyle that poses a major health hazard.

Snippets from other countries:

KOREA
Seoul's weekly 'No Driving Day' programme is improving air quality, reducing congestion, and saving energy.

Some facts about this programme:

• Every year, two million cars stay off the road – decreasing traffic volume by 3.7 per cent.
• CO2 vehicle emissions are being reduced by 10 per cent – this means a total of two million tons of CO2, delivering annual savings of $50 million USD in fuel costs
• The improved air quality is also improving the health of residents, saving the city millions annually
• The programme works because it is applied during weekdays, which encourages people to use alternate modes of transport to and from work

MALAYSIA
The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) pursued the Federal Government to declare a Saturday as National Cycling Day to promote the activity.

It said cycling could help reduce dependence on motorised transport, which contributed to pollution and climate change.

CAP president SM Mohamed Idris said cycling could also help promote a healthier lifestyle as it was a form of physical activity.

The campaign, which started in 2006, was also held previously in towns including Butterworth, Alor Setar, Ipoh, Kangar and Sungai Bakap.

CHINA
Beijing People's Government in February 2009 implemented Traffic Control Measures on regularly rotating No Driving Day on a weekly basis, scheduling it by the vehicle numbers. The government would issue a notice of series of vehicles that were not allowed to ply on road for one day.

That way, for a set number of vehicles, it was always a 'No Driving Day'.


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