Locals applaud car-free month in Korean city | Environment | DW.DE | 30.09.2013

This is significant for a couple of reasons. One is that this was the brainchild of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) - the same organization that hosted the conference in Bonn, Germany where former Commissioner Mulvehill presented. The other thing worth noting is that their streets were falling apart and part of the deal included repairing the communities roads in order to get local support. Not everyone was happy, but the month turned out o.k. anyway. Read the entire article by click the title. Here's a bit of it:

The idea of a car-free month came ICLEI head Konrad Otto-Zimmermann. He says few urban leaders envision the needs of a city 50 years into the future, which includes reducing its carbon footprint.
Otto-Zimmermann says over two years he suggested the idea to mayors from all over the world. In the end, Suwon was the only taker.
"It was surprising because South Korea is such a car-oriented society where people still strive to have a car in order to show their social prestige," Otto-Zimmermann told DW. "In East Asia it's important to have such a model neighborhood."
"In Europe some cities are very advanced in sustainable transport policies, so maybe they don't think they need such an exercise in order to advance," Otto-Zimmermann added.
Convincing the locals
The suburb of Suwon where the event took place, Haenggun-dong, has definitely seen better days. Before it was chosen as the festival site, it was run down, roads were unpaved and littered with potholes, cars were parked everywhere.
The whole neighborhood has since had a facelift. The streets are now even and paved with slate stones.