Being without a car can help your health and your wallet: Biking, walking, or using public transport calm you down because you’re either exercising or engaged in a restful activity, akin to reading, says Eve Andrews, who opted for the no-car life after years of driving. Driving a car frequently is related to anxiety and an overall lower quality of life, she says. With the money she saved from running a car, she managed to rent an apartment in a nicer part of the city, found cost-effective alternatives to traveling when necessary (such as renting a car for long trips and sharing the cost with friends), and also improved her physical health by walking and cycling more often.

Cities all over the world are making an effort to ditch cars, with an entire day dedicated to no cars in an attempt to show the benefits of this approach. A selection of photos from the Guardian shows the event, which aims to promote the improvement of public transport infrastructure, and make the case for cycling and walking, as well as developing communities where jobs and shopping are both within easy reach. Oslo’s city center is now an entirely no-car zone, and Madrid aims to reach that milestone next year. The shift has been a boon for city-center businesses, which have benefited from pedestrians, while sales of scooters, motorbikes, and bicycles have also shot up. With car pollution contributing around 20% to the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and a study finding that some 10k people die prematurely in Europe each year due to pollution from diesel cars alone, the health benefits alone are an additional reason to keep the initiative going.

No, this isn’t only a European thing: Ethiopia had its sixth annual no-car day in May 2019, and this series of photos shows people in Addis Ababa enjoying the space in the city’s capital to exercise, skate, and even dance. Morocco regularly organizes no-car days in Casablanca and Mohammedia. And even business-focused Dubai went the same route for a day in February, with over 10k people taking part in the initiative.