Our Family Has Car-free Days

Today our family did not pollute the environment to get where we were going: We saved money, got lots of exercise, set a good example for others and had fun. We had a car-free day.

A car-free day can be whatever your family decides, but there is one basic rule -- you cannot use your family car for any reason. If you choose, buses and carpools could be all right, or you could avoid motor vehicles altogether. Cars create pollution -- bikes don't. Cars are powered by gasoline-burning engines that pollute the air.

Polluted air hurts plants and people too. People with asthma have more trouble breathing polluted air and can even die.

Using bicycles saves money. Bicycles are much cheaper than cars to buy and fix. Bicycles do not use gasoline and gasoline is expensive and not renewable.

When my dad was a kid, gas was only 52 cents a gallon. Now gas is four times that, about $2.00 a gallon. When we use our bicycles instead of our cars we have more money for other things -- like snacks.

Bicycling is good, easy exercise. Exercise is important because it helps keep you healthy so you can live better and longer. Regular exercise strengthens muscles, helps you lose weight and lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol. All of this helps to prevent heart attacks and other health problems.

Most of all, bicycling is just fun. When we are bicycling sometimes people will see us and say, "Hey, that looks cool." - They especially like our tandem (bicycle built for two). Because we are riding our bicycles, maybe others will try it too.

Car-free days sometimes just happen. On weekends when we don't have much planned, we will sometimes get to the end of a day and realize that we have not driven our car at all. It was easy and it was fun.

On other days, being car-free just takes a little more thought. We are to used to jumping into our cars for every little trip like getting a quart of milk or picking up a video. What we need to do first is think if we really need to take the car. Many of our trips can be done by walking or biking. It makes us feel good to get places under our own power.

Sometimes it is hard to have car-free days. My mom, Tracy, is the Parks and Recreation Director in Ashwaubenon and she needs her car at work. Dad works from home as a bicycle safety person but often needs to drive to meetings and to teach classes. I am a third-grader at Pioneer Elementary School in Ashwaubenon. Sometimes I need a lift to play with friends. My sister, five-year-old Alexandra (Alex) goes to daycare and pre-school and needs rides back and forth.

To be car-free, sometimes we drop mom's car at work on the weekend. Then she can bike to and from work and still have her car there when she needs it.

Most of the time dad bikes to his meetings near home but his out-of-town appointments are still tough. I have just started to bike to school and friends houses -- this has cut way down on our car trips and also gives me more freedom. Alex car pools or bikes on the back of our tandem with mom or dad.

Now that our family has figured out how to have car-free days, maybe we will try a car-free week. After that, who knows what we might do. Maybe we will take a car-free vacation or eventually even get rid of one of our cars. You can have a car-free day too. If we can do it, so can you.

Melissa Flucke, nine, is a third-grader at Pioneer Elementary School in Ashwaubenon. Her father, Peter Flucke, the president of WE BIKE, helped write this article.