I found this the most fascinating fact: Wow. Can you imagine if we did that in any city in the US? I'm sure people would throw a tantrum but that would be an amazing sight - especially in overcrowded cities like NYC. I remember when LA shut down the freeway ("Carmageddon") and I had to venture up north for a meeting. Because everyone was planning on not being on the road I made in from Redondo Beach to Northridge in under 45 minutes - even without the freeway. It was really weird. To have a whole city, regardless of size, have no cars on the roads for a day would be unbelievable. Almost all of our parking cops and related vehicles are now either the Prius of the Leaf. It's smart and not just in terms of the environment. When your sole job is to drive in circles all day, you can save heaps on gas by switching to electric or hybrid. I think we'll see more and more of this as time goes on and they replace older models with newer ones.Bhutan has pledged to stay carbon-neutral country and requires that 60% of the country always remain forested. It enforces a pedestrian day once a month, barring private cars from the roads.
Perhaps a more honest headline would be "The National Council of Bhutan wants to force the Bhutanese people to drive electric cars." After all, people don't need special permission to buy a Leaf if they want one. It would be great fun to enjoy a day without cars, if you didn't need to be in a car that day. Remember the cool opening to "Vanilla Sky"? (And can anyone spot the goof?) But cars are popular for good reason. And the Bhutanese don't seem too happy about the ban; the weekly car-free day was changed to monthly, and now that too has been scrapped.