FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 14, 2023
MEDIA CONTACTS: Gordon Tepper, Rebecca Cheng and Michael Anderson | (516) 869-7794

11th Annual Car Free Day Long Island to be Held on September 22  

North Hempstead, NY – The 11th Annual Car Free Day Long Island will take place on Friday, September 22, 2023. The Town’s participation in the day-long global initiative is part of the Town’s effort to go green and to reduce its carbon footprint.

Over recent years, the Town has provided information and infrastructure to make walking, biking and transit more accessible. North Hempstead has a bike rack outside of Town Hall to encourage the use of bicycle transportation. The rack is not only for Town employees to use, but it can be used by anyone needing to lock up their bike for a trip into town or to the railroad station. The rack is located near the side door of Town Hall on Andrew Street.

In 2021, the Town partnered with PedalShare for a bike share program in Port Washington. PedalShare is a bike share program on Long Island with over 200 bikes and 50 stations across the Island. As part of the program in North Hempstead, stations are located at Town Dock, Manorhaven Beach Park, and the Port Washington Long Island Rail Road Station. PedalShare maintains the bikes and the program will be offered at no cost to the Town.

The Town also hosted a presentation of local transit options and created five, ten and fifteen-minute shop, dine and stroll routes to help residents to experience downtowns by foot. All of this information can be found at northhempsteadny.gov/climateeducation

Town officials hope that Car Free Day will inspire residents to try out a more sustainable mode of travel than single-occupancy vehicles. Last year, North Hempstead employees took the pledge and earned the gold award for the highest number of pledges of any town on Long Island. This resulted in resulting in the avoidance of 59,536 miles of driving and 30 tons of CO2 emissions. The Town encourages residents to take the pledge so we can make an even larger impact.

To participate in this event, all you have to do is pledge to be car free or car-light on September 22, 2023 by filling out the pledge form on www.CarFreeDayLI.com. Those who take the pledge will automatically be entered for a chance to win great prizes.