I've dreamt about this. I would immediately move to the first US city that bans SOV commuters from a significant portion of the city (let's say, a couple square miles), and establishes superblocks where no vehicles are allowed whatsoever, with the old streets converted to green space.
Of course, I doubt this will happen in my lifetime.
It used to be only wealthy people could afford cars and to live in the suburbs. Now cities are so expensive its poor people who live in the suburbs a long way from train stations and drive in. Makes sense to ban cars now and complete the cycle.
Not all cities can ban cars at this point for multiple reasons.
I live for several years in a medium sized wealthy Western European city that's clogged with traffic. Why?
Well, rich Europeans don't like living in cities with tall ugly blocks a so they grow outwards by developing cozy low density suburbs.
1) This suburban expansion was possible due to the cheap automobiles that permitted pretty much everyone to move outside of the cities and away from their jobs, where they could find properties they could afford, outside of the coverage of the rail network. It's almost impossible now, when everyone outside of the city is dependent on their cars to get to work/supermarket/city, to get them to leave their cars without first implementing a massive public transport network that would be too expensive to run profitably so it's much cheaper for the cities to just let people have their cars as they're the ones bearing the cost instead of the city.
2) It's also heavily political. The party that so much as dares to touch drivers and their cars will commit political suicide. Especially since my city is wealthy due to the extensive automotive industry nearby (R&D and manufacturing). Whenever politicians here propose less cars on the road, the auto industry threatens with lost jobs and jobs are way more important for a politician's career than people in the city dying prematurely of air pollution. And not to mention all the dealerships and service centers that contribute to political campaigns and public events especially in smaller cities.
I'd love to see cars banned from this beautiful city, but seeing how culturally attached the locals are to their cars and suburban lifestyle, I'm afraid it's just a pipe dream at this point.
Does anyone really think children will play on the streets when buses, trams, bicycles, emergency services, garbage trucks, and delivery vans still need that space? Does anyone really believe the "empty" parking lots will become public space?
Consider two things: First, every apartment block in a city needs access by road for the emergency services. Second, a more livable city will attract more citizens. This in turn increases the residual traffic.
A city is, by definition, a place where space is at a premium. Banning cars does not change that. And traffic can be solved by offering better alternatives to commuters and managing through-traffic.
The article's most prominent example of an idyllic, walkable, “car-free” city is Venice, Italy, whose residents do have motor vehicles with full access to the city; they just happen to run on separate waterways.
This would imply that the optimal land-based city could have cars, but they'd have to have their infrastructure more sequestered from pedestrians.
What's with all the anti-car articles lately? It's pointless to try having any discussion about it because any comment that even remotely suggests the situational necessity of cars is downvoted out of visibility.
Might as well disable comments and just tell everyone what to think in the title. Drop the pretense of not being an echo chamber by this point.
So I totally support improving public transit, reducing the space allotted for cars, etc etc.
But after 15 years living a car-free in city apartments, I live in a suburb with roommates now and love it. Our home is bigger, we have a lovely backyard where we can sunbathe at whatever nudity level we're comfortable with, we have a nursery for herbs in it, and we can go outside at night and walk the dog without being catcalled. I'm still less than a 20 minute drive away from most of the things I care about. Car dependence is a minor loss compared to the major gains to my quality of life.
Whenever you look at countries that have great public transportation, they usually end up sacrificing space to achieve that. Homes in Japan are much smaller than in the US for example.
How does this square up?
Then narrow corridors can open up for tiny, induction-powered, two-person electric 'trams' that move at a walking pace, and follow sensor-detected 'tracks' to the requested destination.
If I need to get somewhere 'downtown' that's 12-40 blocks away, that buses don't go, that's a long walk. I predict that the space and demand for sane transport options will remain.
Sad to see this article does not mention Pontevedra(Spain), years living without cars in the city center.
Answer: people are late to work because the communication system cannot possibly handle that amount of people unless we are talking about a small village... Maybe one day it will happen
"Today's housing crisis stems from a lack of land – get rid of cars and the problem is solved immediately – JH Crawford"
When the situation is simplified, yes.
I’m guessing so many people on HN are anti-car because they live their lives through their computer and never feel the need to travel outside their immediate area?
What are you supposed to do if you like to take trips to places hundreds of miles away? What if your job involves visiting many different locations in your city throughout the day?
I have family that lives in the same city as me and the difference between visiting them via public transport and using a car is 3 hours vs 40 minutes. This is also NYC which is considered a model city for public transport.
Sure this works in a major city, but what about the smaller cities, and the suburbs?
I'm so happy to see this idea starting to get mainstream attention. I predict that in 50-100 years we'll look back on the age of the automobile as one of the biggest mistakes in urban planning.
Automobiles are dangerous, kill thousands of people every year, contribute significantly to pollution, and cause health problems by discouraging physical activity. They're expensive, inefficient, and cause more harm than good within major cities IMO.
My dream is that one day most streets in Manhattan will be closed to car traffic and replaced with green space full of trees, flowers, children playing, and usable public space.