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Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

theguardian.com

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Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#81

Post by yodsanklai »

montenegrohugo wrote: post #3

This may be shocking to people with an American upbringing, but cars (especially privately owned ones) just do not make sense going forward. Cities get bigger and denser, and wasting a big % of land on parking spaces, roads, intersections and accepting a horrible air quality (that reduces citizen life spans and health quality) and noise pollution just does not make any sense anymore. Carse are effective in less dense…

> This may be shocking to people with an American upbringing, but cars (especially privately owned ones) just do not make sense going forward.

It's not limited to the US. Even in Europe (at least in France where I live), we have a lot of protests whenever there are measures against cars. A few days ago, there was a no-car day in Paris, you could see people on social medias extremely angry.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#82

Post by thales_m »

What about people who live inside city limits but work elsewhere? For example, I currently reside in Washington, DC but work about 30 min away. There is no public transportation to my work. At night, I park in a garage but there are others who park on the street and commute out of the city every morning.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#83

Post by TomMarius »

thecopy wrote: post #28
TomMarius wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of other issues, most of Europe also enjoys a 4-season year - meaning that a bike or scooter is safely and comfortably usable around half of a year, definitely not more.

When i lived in Uppsala, Sweden i biked all year around.

Well, I do as well, but my mother definitely wouldn't and I wouldn't even let her. It's very dangerous even in a car.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#84

Post by pasta »

It's also possible to design cities for both people and cars. The trick is to separate them.

For example a shopping street where no cars are allowed could have parking lots at the back of the shops. So trucks can supply the shops and customers can pickup large goods with their car.

Another method is what we call in Dutch a ​'Cauliflower-neighbourhood'. The closer a road comes to the place were people live, the smaller they become. And speed limits will go down as well. The limits most of the time go from 50km/h to 30km/h to 15 or even 5km/h.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#85

Post by lloeki »

ajuc wrote: post #34
TomMarius wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of other issues, most of Europe also enjoys a 4-season year - meaning that a bike or scooter is safely and comfortably usable around half of a year, definitely not more.

Biking in autumn is perfectly comfortable. You are just wearing more clothes (which you would wear anyway if you're outside). It's not like people never leave their houses in USA, right? Biking in the winter is fine too, as long as there's no snow (and the snow is usually only 1-2 months, depending on the location). And some people do drive in the winter too (but that is harder and most don't).

> It's not like people never leave their houses

Arguably many people seem to consider their car as a self-propelled living room, fully equipped with sofa and entertainment system.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#86

Post by mattmanser »

boobsbr wrote: post #46
jcelerier wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 25 minutes on foot? It's more of a village than a city. you can walk from side to side of Paris in a tad more than one hour with a good rhythm, and two hours if you take it normally.

Considering Paris is roughly 10 km across North-South, that's about 12 min/km at an average human walking speed. So, this city is about 2 km across, which is very small, a village, considering smaller cities are more sparsely populated than an European metropolis.

You're really fixated on this village thing.

Drop into street view in the city centre and have a look around. It's not a village.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#88

Post by TomMarius »

8xde0wcNwpslOw wrote: post #61
TomMarius wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of other issues, most of Europe also enjoys a 4-season year - meaning that a bike or scooter is safely and comfortably usable around half of a year, definitely not more.

Around here (this site I mean), the majority opinion doesn't find any problem at all with sleet and snow and cycling. The odd thing about this is how the biking paths around here (a city 60N) still remain relatively empty for a long time in the winter. It almost confuses me, but not really :-)

> Around here (this site I mean), the majority opinion doesn't find any problem at all with sleet and snow and cycling.

I know. I expected to get this kind of responses. It shows how little empathy this site has for other (older, overworked, with 3 kids, pregnant, ...) people that are just a little different than they are.

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#89

Post by claydavisss »

montenegrohugo wrote: post #3

This may be shocking to people with an American upbringing, but cars (especially privately owned ones) just do not make sense going forward. Cities get bigger and denser, and wasting a big % of land on parking spaces, roads, intersections and accepting a horrible air quality (that reduces citizen life spans and health quality) and noise pollution just does not make any sense anymore. Carse are effective in less dense…

> I want to finish this comment with a call to engage in democracy. Make your opinion heard, loudly, go to the voting polls, participate in your local council, actually engage in politics

in the Bay Area, they tend to vote for more and better roads (but tend not to get them)

Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars

#90

Post by dao- »

hesk wrote: post #70
dao- wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious. Where are those massive bicycle and scooter dedicated roads and parking spaces that occupy our cities?

Devil's advocate: Have you been to Amsterdam? They have dedicated bike lanes and parking garages for bikes near the train stations. Of course, I would say that this is an excellent use of public space as opposed to infrastructure dedicated to cars.

I have been to Amsterdam, yes. :) That's why I asked for /massive/, i.e. a scale that's comparable to the space dedicated to cars.
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