Calling Tbilisi: Can you go one day without your car?

Can you survive in Tbilisi for 24 hours without your car?

A group of activists are challenging the 1.5 million inhabitants of Georgia’s capital city to leave their cars at home for one day to ease traffic on the roads and encourage citizens to walk, cycle or use public transport to get around.

"Leave your car home, rest the city and take a rest yourself!” is the slogan of a new online campaign set up by a group of Tbilisi locals, which urged all people in Tbilisi to refuse their cars on June 28.

The initiative, Car free Tbilisi, aimed to establish one day per month where Tbilisi residents left their cars at home.

Organisers announced the first ‘leave your car at home day’ would take place on Sunday, June 28.

"With this initiative we want to establish a new rule of cultural norm and some kind of tradition in Tbilisi, which will be repeated every month and will be called Car free Tbilisi,” said organisers of the project on their Facebook page.

The ultimate goal was to continue this initiative one per month. On these days Tbilisi locals are encouraged to walk or ride bicycles around the city.

Campaign organisers said for the first try a weekday was not chosen as people often needed vehicles for work, and people were not as reliant on their vehicles on weekends.

"We think that it would be better if we begin the initiative on a weekend,” they said.