The smashing opening of Car Free Thursdays

If you haven’t heard about the ‘Car Free Thursday’ buzz lately, sorry to say but you have to wake up and read about it because the first Thursday of this environmentally sustainable initiative was a smashing hit.

‘Car Free Thursdays’ at a glance:

The Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) in association with TSRTC and several other IT industry associations, in an attempt to reduce traffic and pollution, and also to give commuters a taste of stress free travel on a weekday introduced Car Free Thursdays -a day we pledge to leave our cars behind and avail alternate modes of transport to and from work.

While most of us were contemplating on the success of this event, surprisingly it turned out to be a success. This proves that most of the citizens of the city are now willing to take efforts towards a cleaner, safer and traffic free Hyderabad. The volunteers took great efforts in promoting the initiative. They were seen holding placards and distributing bus route-maps and created quite a buzz.

The TSRTC had agreed to ply an extra 70 buses in addition to the 350 it already operates on key routes leading to the city’s IT corridors to ensure that a bus reaches commuters every 2 minutes.

The success record of the first day:

The initial target of the organizers for this event was people traveling to and from Cyberabad. According to the surveys, the total target was estimated to be around 15,000 users. But, surprisingly more people seemed to participate in this affair. “We are yet to receive official statistics but there were at least 2000 to 3000 cars less on the roads”, quotes Ramesh Loganathan, President, HYSEA.

To support this cause, people chose different options. From car pooling, to using public transport to walking their way to work, people were seen taking initiatives for this event. A few of them even took this as an opportunity to give their vehicles for servicing on a weekday, while they chose other modes of transportation. Shankar CT, founder of the Digital Marketing School, left his car behind and chose to walk 7km to work.

The Facebook page of “Car Free Thursdays” was seen flooding with posts and selfies of people who participated in this initiative. Interestingly, when people were seen posting “walking my way to office” there were lot of people who volunteered to pick them up in case they were on the same way making social networking grow beyond the virtual walls.  People from different spheres came together to support this cause.

Observing the huge success of the first day, more and more people are now eager to be a part of this from the next Thursday and hope it spreads to other parts of the city as well.

Let’s all get together to support this cause to make Hyderabad a cleaner and a safer place to live. Make every Thursday a “Car Free Thursday”.

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