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Car-Free Day - April 25, 2002 by Jackie Sheader, Centre Area Transportation Authority This April, as part of Earth Day and Earth Week celebrations, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe will abandon their cars for Earth Car-Free Day on Thursday, April 25, as a call for sustainable transportation. Car-Free Day does not aim to take all cars off the streets as a long-term solution. Instead, it is a pattern break; it encourages people to think about the impact of their transportation choices and how cleaner, more effective forms of transportation can enhance our quality of life. Global Car-Free Day festivities will include a wide variety of activities: city-wide projects shutting down streets to traffic; cooperative neighborhood projects led by cycling and walking groups, schools, health agencies, and environmentalists; and a range of projects and proposals by individual citizens and families. The Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) and the Centre Region Bicycle Coalition (CRBC) have organized this spring’s Car-Free Day. They are joined by a number of co-sponsors: Centre County, State College Borough, College Township, Patton Township, Penn State, the Nittany Velo Club, The Bicycle Shop, Saint’s Café, Eco Action, and the ClearWater Conservancy. There will be an informational table in front of the new municipal building, 243 South Allen Street, with breakfast snacks by Saint’s Café for those who have left their cars at home (first come, first served) and CATA and CRBC representatives will be on hand to answer questions and demonstrate CATA’s bus-mounted bike racks. A large group of people are planning to participate in a critical mass bike ride, starting from Willard Building around noon, riding through Campus and through downtown State College, and ending up at the municipal building. The winner of a Bike-to-Work Slogan Contest for elementary school children will be announced, with prizes from the Bicycle Shop going to the top three entries. For more information regarding April 25 activities in the Centre Region, please contact Susannah Barsom, CRBC Car-Free Day Coordinator, at 237-3824, or Jacqueline Sheader, CATA Marketing Coordinator, at (814) 238-CATA(2282) ext. 141.

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