Alternative Travel Project – a post by Ala Gibki

Have you ever wondered if there are any other ways to get to school or work other than by car? There’s so much being said about air pollution caused by traffic. In 2017 there were one billion cars in the world. It’s believed that by 2024 this number will have doubled. There are 320 millions cars just in the USA. Can you imagine? As a comparison, there are ‘only’ 19 millions cars in Poland! 

It makes people wonder why our planet is so polluted, yet no one thinks about the most obvious reason – cars.
It’s common now to lead a healthy lifestyle and take care of the environment. Have you ever wondered how to get the best of both worlds? If you haven’t come up with a simple solution, let me introduce the Alternative Travel Project to you!
What is ATP? It’s an organization that encourages people to go car-free for just one day. It tries to prove that, even though cars are great, they don’t have to be an inevitable part of our everyday life. And if it’s possible to make at least a hundred people go to school or work by bike, they might end up telling their friends how cool it was, and they’ll spread the whole idea around. Wouldn’t it be fun just to grab your friend, who might not be a cyclist or a walker, and say ‘Hey, let’s walk to work together!’ just to show them how easy it is?
I found out about ATP because of Stana Katic, who presented the  project during Talks at Google. It was about a year ago and since then I’ve been avoiding travelling by car as much as possible and, to be honest, I’ve never walked as much as I do now!
Not only does traffic cause air pollution, but it also leads to heart diseases, anxiety, arterial hypertension and so on, whereas walking or cycling is beneficial for your health and makes you gain social experience. Let me tell you a story connected with ATP. There’s a school in Romania that introduced car-free Fridays and, as a result, people connected with this school started actually talking to each other. They would meet on buses or sidewalks and a little over a year after there were two weddings as a direct result of the Alternative Travel Project!
To cut it short, ATP doesn’t intend to make people throw their driving licences away. It’s just about making people realize that traveling car-free isn’t that bad and we all can make a difference, even if it’s just for a day. One day a year might turn into one day a month.
I’d like to encourage you to give the ATP a try and to share your opinions about it – not only with me, but also with your friends and family.
If you would like to know more about the Alternative Travel Project, here’s an interview with Stana Katic:

8 Responses to Alternative Travel Project – a post by Ala Gibki

  1. Nowadays people travel more often by cars. The worst thing that can be for the environment is a
    significant increase in the number of cars that affect the air we breathe in. People usually drive their
    cars themselves, which can make us think about how many cars are out on the roads.
    In my opinion , the idea related to this project is very good not only for the environment, which is getting
    worse , but also for ourselves. The number of people who suffer from being overweight due to lack of exercise is growing worldwide. If such a boring car ride were to be replaced by more physical activities , the number of sick
    people would decrease significantly.

  2. In my opinion, this is a very good idea. To be honest, we will take care of our body twice, we will not pollute the environment and walking to school fortified fitness. A brilliant idea

  3. People need to realize how important it is. If we don’t changed it ,we will lose our planet. This project is a great idea. We have something like this in Poland but people don’t care about it cause they’re too lazy for walking for example. They think that fresh air will be there forever but it’s not true . We have to do something to save our world.

  4. Going to school by car is good idea when you living far from school, but I think most of the students live 30-60 minutes from school so bike will be good option for us and our planet. Sometimes you can go faster than cars in traffic jam. Otherwise you taking care of your body and you don’t have to pay for gas. ATP is a good idea.

  5. In my opinion, this is really good idea because we have only one planet.
    In the furure our kids won’t be able to breath, this is good too because we can take care of our body and our health.

  6. Marek Dobrzański

    Last year i changed the way I move around my city. Before that I mostly used taxis and my mom’s car to mąkę short journeys. Now I mostly use public comunication, my bike and by simply taking a walk. Thanks to this I feel better about myself, knowing that I am doing my part in saving the environment.

  7. It’s true that people don’t think about the dangers of cars, they are all scared when they hear about climate change due to people, but many are too lazy to start with themselves. This is a very good idea that will benefit not only nature but also us humans. On a bicycle in traffic jams can be reached even faster than the car to work. Also, a bicycle is a great way to deal with a fixed lifestyle and problems with a lot of weight. There are a lot of people working in offices where they sit for several hours. Great idea

  8. I think people are driving cars not from laziness but from rush from the world. ATP is very good idea, but the only way to get it into everyone’s life is to explain how important it is to save our planet. 2 or 3 people won’t change the world but there are more and more people who are making social campaigns about saving enviroment before total death. We have to show people advantages of walking and enjoying clean air. I really appreciate people making things like this, in the future they can be heros not only for them, but for every people and world

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