FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Die-in on Wednesday, September 22, 5:30 p.m., at Phillips Square.
Alive without my car!
Montréal, Monday, September 13, 2010 – On Wednesday, September 22, 2010, for World Carfree Day, the Montréal à Vélo Collective is organizing a Die-in to condemn the violence caused by the pervasiveness of car culture in our society. Starting at 5:30 p.m., hundreds of people will come together at the corner of St. Catherine and Union to illustrate the worst result of the domination of car culture: death.
Every month, more names are added to the automobile’s list of victims. In 2009, the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec reported 2253 people seriously injured and 515 deaths due to automobile accidents in Québec alone. That’s not to mention the victims of cardiac and respiratory disease caused by automobile-created air pollution.
“Merely encouraging walking and cycling is not enough,” says Fannie Dulude, from the organizing committee, “As long as provincial and municipal authorities don’t show a clear political commitment to reduce the space allotted to automobiles in cities, pedestrians and cyclists will continue to be at risk of dying.”
A Die-in is a symbolic, theatrical event. Participants are invited to pretend to be injured or dead, in order to demand a chance at life without cars!
Statistics
- Between the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in December 2007 and today one million cars were added on Quebec roads. You read correctly: 1 million additional cars, in 12 years, an average growth of 85 000 vehicles per year, half in Greater Montreal. “
- Road transport produces 40% of emissions of greenhouse gases emissions in Quebec, 50% in the Montreal metropolitan area, 60% the island of Montreal.
- 80% of Quebecers aged 18 to 80 years have a car.
- Around Montreal, four major projects totaling 80 kilometers of new highways are under construction
- Road vehicle accidents with injuries resulted in 43,582 deaths and 2253 serious injuries.
- In 2009 there were 5,027,848 licensed to drive in Quebec and 5,778,947 vehicles in circulation
- Aout 1,844 pedestrians are Injured by cars on the island of Montreal EACH year. That Amounts to 14.4% of the Montreal population.
