Carless Cities Are Europe’s Future
But of course, this could never happen here. We’re different.
Paul Hockenos writes in AlJazeera America.
But there’s another way for cities to go green in the meantime, and it’s not expensive. Cities that restrict car traffic, tax fossil-fuel burners, slash public transportation costs, phase out diesel and revamp their avenues in favor of bikes and pedestrians can shrink their carbon footprints dramatically — in the way Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Zurich and Barcelona have already done.
Governments can start by doing away with subsidies to the automobile and aviation industries and redirecting funds toward the greening of cities.
The common misconception is that if you give over public streets for pedestrians and bicycles you radically lower the number of people who use these streets. Our anecdotal experience in cities in Europe and Asia is that street use increases dramatically if the right roads are switched. Prague, Copenhagen and Stockholm are the best examples we’ve seen and the resulting street life is infinitely richer than on car streets.
One of the key ingredients is making it convenient for cars to come in just close enough to walk, and for transit to come closer. That puts a natural time-cost to transportation for the “last mile” and lets everyone choose how they want to pay that cost.
For those who imagine that people would no longer be able to carry big things home from the stores easily without direct car access, yes, you’re probably right. But the day of big things being sold in the centre of town is virtually over as furniture, appliance and car dealers have all but deserted the inner city, being unable compete with the big box stores on the edge of town.
I agree. If you make them places for people, then the people will be there.
@ John Graham – Also, there are other options for purchasing and moving large, bulky items even in a mostly car-free city centre. At stores such as Ikea (and at any appliance or furniture store), customers can opt for delivery of large items. You can also rent trucks and vans through car-sharing or traditional rental companies when you really need to.
So I agree, we can have the benefits of dramatically reduced traffic, but I think commerce and goods movement need not suffer.
You can also get grocery delivered by many (most?) grocery chain stores. This was apparently quite common here when most households didn’t have two cars and shopping was done during the day without car. Now it seems to make a comeback, at least on the North Shore where Save On Foods and Fresh St. Market widely advertise online shopping and/or delivery service.
Hilarious example: a friend in San Francisco lives in a 300 unit apartment building with a big lobby and a concierge. When my friend comes home from work every day she can barely see the concierge over the pile of boxes that have been delivered during the day to the residents, most of whom seem to be in the tech industry. The concierge, when you make your way around to her desk, will tell you that her life changed totally when Google started 6 months free delivery for online purchases. The concierge says dryly “these kids don’t know how to get their garbage inside the garbage bin but they sure know how to click a mouse.”
Indeed it is amazing how few, if any, pedestrian zones we have in downtown Vancouver even, the alleged “greenest” city in North America. Why is that ? Why is Robson, Davie & Denman still used for cars as a through road or worse, a parking lot ? Why is S-Granville not a tunnel so we can have a decent shopping experience above ?
Why is Robson not even closed for a few blocks, say on Fridays to Sundays ? Is this our British heritage inspired high-street centered mentality ?
Why is on-street parking still so common even in dense and very expensive downtown Vancouver ? Why is there no subway under Denman, Davie, Robson or into E-Van ? The City of Vancouver – to my knowledge – has the tools, specifically rights to parking lot assignment, vastly increased parking fees and higher property taxes to fund it without provincial authority. Why is it not used ?
For all its “green” talk, why are parking fees in West-End or most residential neighborhoods so low ? Where is this vision in “Vision” Vancouver ? or NPA ?
Why is so darn difficult to park my car near a skytrain station in burnaby or coquitlam and come downtown that way?
Might as well just drive.
Why not cycle to the station?