Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
theguardian.com
Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
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Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#2Pedestrianisation works well in European cities, especially small ones. It's quite common here in the UK, often there are strict time limits on when delivieries can be made, e.g. 6-8am when barriers are open to let vehicles in and out.
However this model just does not work in the US, outside of very few places. US cities are designed for cars, and without major redevelopment everything's just too far apart - even within the context of a single street - for this to make sense. If you had electric scooters or something though...
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#3This 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 regions, but in modern cities other solutions have to be found. Mass transit, biking lanes, electro-scooters, (elevated)-footpaths are the way to go. Maybe even electric ridesharing.
But privately owned gasoline-guzzlers are an archaic solution to the transportation problem, and they are not effective in today's society.
I know european cities are much more pedestrian friendly & that US cities in general are more oriented towards the car lifestyle, but as said previously, this needs to change. It is a big cultural and infrastructure change over a longer timespan, but it is achievable.
Of course change always requires some sacrifice, and I imagine the car-drivers in above mentioned article must have been plenty pissed at the beginning. But they paved over the streets, made the inner city pedestrian only, and now they are better for it. Of course this is a very small town and these changes do not scale up as easily as one would like, and much more complex projects will have to be designed for bigger cities. But it is doable (see initiatives in e.g. Madrid, Munich & most of the netherlands) and "only" requires some long-term commitment. But we all know how good politicians are at that (what's global warming??).
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. Because if you do not, no significant change will be made any time soon.
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#4>How can it be that private property – the car – occupies the public space?
Regardless of what you think of this policy, this is the level of reasoning of a 14 year old.
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#5>“The city is the perfect size for pedestrianisation,” says local architect Rogelio Carballo Soler. “You can cross the entire city in 25 minutes.
This seems to be the key point why it works.
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#6>“The city is the perfect size for pedestrianisation,” says local architect Rogelio Carballo Soler. “You can cross the entire city in 25 minutes. This seems to be the key point why it works.
25 minutes on foot? It's more of a village than a city.
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#7>How can it be that private property – the car – occupies the public space? Regardless of what you think of this policy, this is the level of reasoning of a 14 year old.
How can it be that private property - the bicycle/the scooter - occupies the public space?
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#8>How can it be that private property – the car – occupies the public space? Regardless of what you think of this policy, this is the level of reasoning of a 14 year old.
How can it be that private property - the bicycle/the scooter - occupies the public space?
How can it be that private property - my own body - occupies the public space?
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#9Pedestrianisation works well in European cities, especially small ones. It's quite common here in the UK, often there are strict time limits on when delivieries can be made, e.g. 6-8am when barriers are open to let vehicles in and out. However this model just does not work in the US, outside of very few places. US cities are designed for cars, and without major redevelopment everything's just too far apart - even wit…
Internalize the cost of parking, drop mandatory parking minimums and change zoning to allows for reasonable density. Wait a few decades and cities probably won't be as car centric as they are now.
Re: Life in the Spanish city that banned cars
#10>“The city is the perfect size for pedestrianisation,” says local architect Rogelio Carballo Soler. “You can cross the entire city in 25 minutes. This seems to be the key point why it works.
25 minutes on foot? It's more of a village than a city.
> 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.