A modern city without cars? Sounds tempting, but not for everyone. Is this even possible and do we really want it?
Imagine children playing soccer on the streets of the city. Imagine tourists taking pictures carelessly in the middle of the road. Restaurants that set their tables right on the street. And around - no cars, no motorcycles, no buses. This is roughly how I remember Venice, the only city without cars that I have seen. We were there with friends during our summer vacation at the university. We then hitchhiked around Italy. Venice is, of course, unique in that it is built on small islands. But still it was very pleasant - to be in a city where you can wander without dodging cars.
Over the past 100 years, motor vehicles have become the dominant force in the urban landscape. Streets are specially widened so that you can drive through them more freely and faster, so that there is more space for parking. Private cars have revolutionized the way we move, but at the same time they have brought with them many problems - from air pollution to road accidents. And today a small but growing number of cities are trying to get rid of cars. Oslo and Madrid have made headlines over the past few years about their government's plans to ban traffic in the center of these capitals. The plans, however, have not yet been fully realized.
How to save a gasping city?
However, these intentions represent a broader trend: to make traffic in large cities as difficult as possible. Here is London with its payment for entry to the central districts of the city, and Mexico City with the "pico y placa" initiative (when your right to drive on certain city routes depends on whether your car number ends with an even or odd number), and several small cities that have decided completely ban car traffic (for example, Pontevedra in Spain).
“Our main goal is to bring the streets back to the people,” says Hanna Markussen, Oslo's deputy mayor for urban development. - It is important to understand how we want to use our streets, and what they are for. We believe that the streets are where you meet people, where you eat in outdoor restaurants, where children play, where artists show their work."
Oslo, the Norwegian capital, has made a concerted effort to remove cars from its main streets.
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There is also an environmental aspect. Oslo was built in a geological basin, which is why the city (especially in winter) suffers from severe air pollution. According to local authorities, pollution levels have decreased significantly over the past ten years. Oslo residents are less likely to use a car to travel around the city (from 35% of trips in 2009 to 27% in 2018), and the number of people using bicycles, public transport, or simply walking has increased.
“In addition to the long-standing problems associated with environmental pollution and millions of deaths in car accidents, the most unpleasant consequences of the impact of cars on society must be recognized as the incredible damage they cause to social space,” he emphasizes.
The bottom line is that cars significantly reduce social interaction. “The most popular places for residents in cities are places without cars,” says Crawford. These are parks, squares or streets given over to pedestrians. According to him, in such American cities as Houston and Dallas, up to 70% of urban land is given for parking. “The current housing crisis is due to a lack of land. Get rid of the cars and the problem will be solved immediately."
No cars at all?
A city with no cars? Sounds attractive. But is this possible? And does everyone want it? How about emergency services? And what will people who find it difficult to walk on foot do? And what will happen to the sprawling suburbs of megacities, with the so-called dormitory areas? Are we trying to impose on all citizens an idea that is popular mainly only among the younger generation who want to live and work in the city center?
The dying trade and business on the central streets of many British cities will not be helped in any way by restrictions on car traffic, he emphasizes, and city centers will quickly turn into a haven of drug addicts and drunks. He agrees that many cities are too crowded with cars, but in his opinion, this is due to poor planning. You just need more parking in the right places.
The city center will die if people are not allowed to come there, but if the right alternative in the form of public transport is provided, then everything will be fine.
Ransford Achimpong, an urban planning researcher at the University of Manchester, says banning cars will help clean the air and improve people's health, but if you take a car, provide an alternative. Even in Europe, where public transport works pretty well, for many, life is completely impossible without a car. There is such a concept of "last mile", "pedestrian shoulder" from the bus stop to the house. This is the final part of our daily itinerary, and if public transport does not make this part to a minimum, we will still be driving.
While Oslo Deputy Mayor Markussen praises the human rights invasion argument when his car is taken away from him, she stresses: “In many cases, not restricting traffic means restricting the freedoms of others. Cars prevent children from playing on the streets and older people from crossing the road.”
“Oslo also has a problem with air pollution. We can say that cars violate the rights of residents with asthma, forcing them to stay at home and not go anywhere when the level of pollution is particularly high,”she says.
What does it take to free the city from cars?
In the master plan of a Big City (suburb of Chengdu, China), any place can be reached on foot. There are no dead ends, there are many intersections, so it's nice to walk or ride a bike here. There is also a "vertical connection": the skyscrapers are connected by air bridges. The large city, designed for the life of 100 thousand people, covers an area of only one square kilometer. The maximum amount of time that must be spent when moving from one point to another is 10 minutes. What are gigantic cities sick of What the society of the future should not be - nine tips Will we move underground?
Unfortunately, this suburb is still in the plans. Its development was ordered by the Chengdu authorities back in 2012 by the American architectural firm SmithGill, but it was never built. Nevertheless, it is clear that this urban area is quite ready to do without cars.
“We wanted the kids to be able to walk to school there, and the adults didn't have to travel long distances to work,” says firm spokesman Chris Drew.
This suburb would be connected with the rest of the city by two railway lines, so that there would be no need for a car.
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi initially did not provide for the use of cars.
There are a couple more examples of new cities that were about to become more or less car-free. Earlier, Drew worked on the Masdar City (United Arab Emirates) project, which at first was planned to completely get rid of cars, but now cars are sometimes found on its streets. SmithGill also helped develop the master plan for the 2020 Dubai World Fair, which is expected to be fully pedestrianized and populated after the World Expo.
Movement along it will be assisted by many interconnected interchange hubs, each of which will have a tram or light rail stop, surrounded by shops, offices and residential buildings. Residents will need no more than five minutes to walk to a public transport stop.
These are all plans, but how to remake the already existing cities in which most people live today? Hannah Markussen explains the Oslo authorities' approach this way: “We started with pilot projects so that people could see for themselves how everything would be, we introduced changes very gradually.”
“For example, one of the most beautiful squares in Oslo, near the city council, used to be completely packed with cars,” she says. - A year ago we banned parking there, closed the entrance there, and at first it seemed strange to people. But now they already think it was strange that we allowed cars to drive there."
A future without cars?
“Looking to the future with optimism, this trend will only strengthen,” says Achimpong. - Take a look at the statistics - apparently, we have passed the peak of the popularity of owning a car and are driving less now. There is also a big difference in habits between millennials and baby boomers, between different generations."
He believes that young people are increasingly abandoning car ownership. All of this indicates that the dominance of cars in our cities will gradually fade away naturally.
Not all cities can be as car-free as Venice, but if you prioritize the interests of pedestrians and cyclists, then something will work out.
On the other hand, he points out, there is a growing demand for new transportation services - like Uber or Lyft, or self-driving taxis. “But these are also cars,” he emphasizes.
Achimpong notes that the popularity of car ownership is booming in most developing countries, and their governments are taking this into account when developing infrastructure with car owners in mind. It is by car that most trips are made in metropolitan areas far from the center of the metropolis - take, for example, the M25 in London or Beijing, where there are seven ring roads.
But it will be much more difficult for megalopolises that have grown simultaneously with highways and large parking lots. It is difficult to say how far this trend will take us. Anyway, I do not forget that the only way to get out of the car-free Venice was to stand on the side of the road, vote and wait for a car to stop …
To read the original of this article in English, visit the BBC Future website.
By Len Williams