The ​“Car Free Challenge” Is On

It’s that time of the year again for trading car keys for a bus pass, a bike, a good pair of walking shoes — or all three.

That’s because the beginning of September marks the start of an annual ​“Car Free Challenge” campaign by the city’s alternative transportation program Go New Haven Go to get people out of their cars and considering other ways to move about the city.

City officials Thursday kicked off the challenge, which begins every Sept. 1, with sweet treats from Insomnia Cookies and by unveiling a new video produced by Yale University student Vlad Vykhodets featuring some faces you know talking about why they walk, bike and take public transportation. (Full disclosure: this reporter is in the video.)

Just as in the previous three years, participants sign up for the challenge and then keep track of how they get to work during the month of September. Employers and individual commuters compete in different size categories. Contestants tallying the most trips involving alternatives to single-car-occupancy commuting — biking, bus-riding, walking, ride-sharing — win prizes sponsored by local businesses. (Read here about the 2016 challenge winners here.)

Click here to sign up for or learn more about the challenge.

Mayor Toni Harp said Thursday that the car-free challenge is designed to raise collective awareness about the importance of reducing the city’s collective emissions and carbon footprint. She noted that in the previous three years of Go New Haven Go’s Car Free challenge people drove 260,000 fewer vehicle miles, 165 tons of carbon dioxide emissions were avoided, and $200,000 dollars in transportation costs were saved.

“New Haven is so fortunate to have so many environmental activists,” she said. ​“Likewise, New Haven is fortunate to have so many environmental attributes. This is a coastal community with three rivers coming through town. About 20 percent of this city is given to park land and the city’s nickname the Elm City speaks to the environmental awareness and stewardship.

“Let’s advance that legacy over this next month by embracing the goals of the Go New Haven Go Car Free challenge,” she added. ​“Let’s recommit ourselves to a New Haven with cleaner air, healthier residents, and a more sustainable transportation system going forward.”

Southern Connecticut State University and Gateway Community College and their students could be fierce competitors this year in the challenge. Undergraduate students at state colleges and universities have free access to train service like Metro North as well as the CT Transit bus system.

“It’s a social justice issue as well as an environmental one for our students,” said Suzanne Huminski, the sustainability coordinator for Southern. ​“Access to our campus is crucial for many of our students. Affording transportation to school is one of the biggest factors determining whether they can go to school. I’ve had students almost in tears when they learned that they could ride the train for free instead of just the buses because it means employment access, but also trips to the grocery store and different events.”

City transportation chief Doug Hausladen said in addition to a new promotional video and new partners in the challenge, a new competition will take place this year: Go New Haven Go is partnering with Make Haven to host a ​“Parking Space to Public Space” design competition.

Anyone can submit an affordable design for a ​“parklet” — the conversion of two standard parking spaces, 40 feet by 8 feet, into a public space on the street for people to stop, sit and rest — pretty much anywhere in the city that has parking spaces. Submissions are due by Sept. 19 and on that day which also happens to be Make Haven’s open house people can pitch their designs. Mayor Harp will announce the winners on Sept. 22 as part of World Car Free Day. (For more details email [email protected].)

Win Davis, director of the Town Green Special Services District, said that in New Haven approximately 17 percent of people in the city do not use a single occupancy transportation to move about the city, which means they use some alternative transportation instead. He said he hopes that percentage will only continue to grow. There are also some new signs going up downtown to help make the city more walkable.

“That sets downtown New Haven apart from the rest of Connecticut,” he said. ​“We invite the rest of Connecticut to come here park and walk around.”