Not all green ideas are good ideas. Case in point: Seattle’s Car-Free Weekends. The concept seemed noble enough - Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels pushed an initiative to close one neighborhood each weekend to automobile traffic in the Emerald City, in an effort to get citizens walking, biking and using public transportation.

The problem, however, is that the measure is perhaps too much, too soon.   While the majority of residents of Seattle support environmental measures and reduction or elimination of fossil fuel consumption, in the present, the society is still dependent on the use of the internal combustion engine for individual transportation needs. Residents who needed to use their cars on the weekend as well as visitors coming in from out of town found the initiative confusing at the very least. One Seattleite told local KING-5 television, “A car passes by every once in a while, just people trying to get home. And they don’t know how to get home.”  Another resident remarked, “I think most people are scratching their heads. I’ve seen people move the signs and drive through anyway.”

The confusion over the initiative highlights the need for clear policymaking in the transition over to a green economy. While I can certainly commend Mayor Nickels for fighting the good fight with Car-Free Weekends, it would seem that first providing residents to more clean, green alternatives to automobile transportation need to be in place before such a policy could be successful.

You can by learning more about environmental policymaking in the United States by checking out the Green Policy database.

LINKS:

KING-5: Rain Washes Out Car-Free Day in Seattle

Seattle Metblogs: Seattle Starts Car-Free Closures

Car Free Days