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AMZS is one of the oldest automobile associations in the world. Founded but four years after the British Automobile Association and in the same year when the first conference of automobile associations was held in Paris, France, AMZS began as a rather bold and daring venture of a few Carniolan big cats of the day. On 16 July 1909 a convention was held in Ljubljana at the initiative of Baron Friderik Borno-16 very influential people, proud owners of the man's new best friend, the car, decided to found the Carniolan Automobile Club. The founding document stated that the basic principles of the new never-before-seen club should revolve around sports driving, accelerating tourism of the region and elucidating the new concept of automobilism to the people, all the while staying out of the political arena. The founding members were visionaries, bold industrials with big ideas, yet even they were not aware that they were laying the foundation for mass mobility which would several decades later become such an intrinsic fibre of Slovene society.

100 years after

The association celebrated its 100th anniversary last September at Grand Hotel Union, with the President of Slovenia Dr Danilo Türk participating as the honorary guest speaker. The celebration awarded the organisation's past members, including past presidents, vice presidents, secretary-generals and others who contributed to the joint cause over the years. It served as a fitting occasion for reflection on past achievements and rumination on the future-safety on Slovene roads was on the minds of the present Managing Director of AMZS Dr Danijel Starman and the Slovene President Dr Danilo Türk. While the former pointed out that AMZS should not become too complacent with its achievements but should do everything in its power to increase safe driving, also expressing a wish that more young and women drivers become AMZS members, the latter delivered a speech that incorporated elements of a global vision of the world. The President called for a gradual introduction of new technologies, more "green" and environment-friendly technologies, calling to everyone's mind that by the time the Carniolan Automobile Club was established, Ljubljana had already had an electric streetcar, which, unlike the car, posed no harm to the environment: "The increase in mobility will not be able to go on indefinitely. We will have to reach a compromise between economy, ecology and personal ambitions." The President saw AMZS in the function of a mediator in finding proper balance between mobility, safety and environmental responsibility, touching also on the subject of road accidents and calling for a move that would release transit freight traffic on Slovene roads. He stressed the importance of being committed to Vision 0, which is an attempt to reduce the number of road casualties to 0; in 2008 there more than 43,000 road casualties and 1.8 million traffic injuries in the EU.

In July the centenary was honoured by a three-day celebration at the Safe Driving Centre at Vransko, which presented the achievements of the past century, gave the visitors an insight into the work of the association and also into what lies ahead. More than 1,300 people could test a driving simulator, put on a special pair of "drunkenness-simulating" glasses and witness a brand new Renault Laguna being totalled at 80 km/h.

Mobility vs. sustainability

100 years ago the newly acquired mobility represented a new way of bringing people together-distances that once looked enormous and unconquerable suddenly became manageable and within reach. The world may never have fully recovered from that initial shock which suddenly made the world much smaller, and constantly on the go, and may still be firmly riding on the high of the mobility wave-hoards of metal beasts rushing along endless highways prove just that. In any regard, one hundred years of mobility is a good opportunity to take a breather and ask the most obvious elephant-in-the-room type of question: where to, dear world, thou mowest with such a hasty step? (As though in defiance, the only thing that is heard is the sound of the engine stubbornly vrooming into the cold of the night ...)

Taking into consideration the environment itself and the fact that mobility has become so deeply entrenched into the modern human soul, green technologies will have to both sustain that enormous human drive to move-around-incessantly-no-questions-asked and the human drive for a future, something the Slovene President touched upon in his speech. How does that old Slovene saying go: "You can't have mobility without a ... planet?" That sounds about right.