12 major cities that are beginning to go car-free
Calle de AlcalГЎ in Madrid, Spain. Wikipedia Commons
In late 2016,В Madrid’s Mayor Manuela Carmena reiterated her plan to kick individual cars out of the city center.
On Spanish radio networkВ Cadena Ser, she confirmed that Madrid’s main avenue, the Gran VГa, will only allowВ access to bikes, buses, and taxisВ before she leaves office in May 2019. It’s part of a larger effort to banВ all diesel cars in Madrid by 2025.В
But the Spanish cityВ isВ not the only one getting ready toВ take the car-free plunge. Urban planners and policy makersВ around the world have embarked to brainstorm ways thatВ cities can createВ more space for pedestrians and lowerВ CO2 emissions fromВ diesel.
Here are twelve В cities leadingВ the car-free movement.
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Oslo will implement its car ban by 2019.
OsloВ plans to permanently ban all cars from its city center by two thousand nineteen — six years before Norway’sВ country-wide ban would go into effect.
The Norwegian capital will invest powerfully in public transportation and substitute thirty five miles of roads previously predominated by cars with bike lanes.
"The fact that Oslo is moving forward so rapidly is encouraging, and I think it will be inspiring if they are successful," says Paul Steely White, theВ executive directorВ ofВ Transportation Alternatives, an organization that supports bikers in Fresh York City andВ advocates for car-free cities.
Madrid’s planned ban is even more extensive.
MadridВ plans to ban cars from five hundred acres of itsВ city center by 2020, with urbanВ planners redesigning twenty four of the city’s busiest streets for walking rather than driving.В
The initiative is part of the city’s "sustainable mobility plan," which aims to reduce daily car usage from 29% to 23%. Drivers who overlook the fresh regulations will pay a fine of at leastВ $100. And the most polluting cars will pay more to park.
"In neighborhoods, you can do a lot with petite interventions,"В Mateus Porto and VerГіnica MartГnez, who are both architects and urban planners from the local pedestrian advocacy group A PIE, told Prompt Company . "We believe that regardless of what the General Plan says about the future of the city, many things can be done today, if there is political will."
People in Chengdu will be able to walk anywhere in fifteen minutes or less.
Chicago-based architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill designed a newВ residential areaВ for the Chinese city. The layoutВ makes it lighter to walk than drive, with streets designed so thatВ people can walk anywhere in fifteen minutes.
While Chengdu won’t entirely ban cars, only half the roads in the 80,000-person city will permit vehicles.В The rigid originally planned to make this happenВ byВ 2020, but zoning issuesВ are delaying theВ deadline.
Hamburg is making it lighter not to drive.
The German city plans to make walking and biking itsВ dominantВ mode of transport. Within the next two decades, Hamburg will reduce the number of cars by only permitting pedestrians and bikers to inject certain areas.
The project calls for aВ gruenes netz, or a "green network," of connected spacesВ that people can access without cars. By 2035, theВ network will cover 40% of Hamburg and will include parks, playgrounds, sports fields, and cemeteries.
Bikes proceed to rule the road in Copenhagen.
Today, over half of Copenhagen’s population bikes to work every day, thanks to the city’s effort to introduce pedestrian-onlyВ zones embarking in the 1960s. The Danish capital now boasts more than two hundred miles of bike lanes andВ has one of the lowest percentages of car ownership in Europe.
The latest purpose is toВ buildВ a superhighway for bikes that will spread to surrounding suburbs. The very first ofВ twenty eight planned routes opened in 2014, andВ eleven more will be ended by the end of 2018. The city has also pledged to become entirely carbon-neutral by 2025.
Paris will ban diesel cars and dual the number of bike lanes.
When Paris banned cars with even-numbered plates for a day in 2014, pollution dropped by 30%. Now, the city wants to discourage cars from driving in the city center at all.В
As of July 2016, all drivers with cars made before one thousand nine hundred ninety seven are not permitted toВ drive in the city center on weekdays. If they do, they will be fined, however they can drive there loosely on the weekends.
The mayor says Paris also plans to dual its bike lanes and limit select streets to electrified cars by 2020. The city also resumes to make smaller, short-term efforts to curb emissions — its first car-free day was in 2015, and it instated a car-free Sundays rule in May 2016.
Athens is also joining the diesel ban.
InВ December 2016, Athens, GreeceВ announced it will ban diesel carsВ from the city center by 2025.
The initiative serves as an attempt to improve the city’s air quality.В Athens already restricts diesel vehicles from the city center on certain days based on theirВ plate numbers, but Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis says his aim is to eventually eliminate all cars from the area.
London will charge you for congestion.
Just like Paris, the mayor of London says the city will ban diesel cars by 2020.В
Presently, the city discourages the use of diesel enginesВ in some areas of the cityВ byВ charging a fee of $12.50 per day for diesel cars thatВ inject during peak hours. TheyВ call it a "congestion charge."
" London is already talking about an ultra low emission zone, banning all sorts of diesel vehicles,"В Stephen Joseph from the Campaign for Better Transport told The Telegraph. "This is not unlikely that they will be banned altogether in the same way Paris has done."
Brussels features the largest car-free area in Europe.
Most streets that surroundВ Brussels’В city square, stock exchange, and Rue NeuveВ (aВ major shopping street) В have always been pedestrian-only. The roads make upВ the 2nd largest car-free zone in Europe, behind Copenhagen. В
In 2002, Brussels launched its very first "Mobility Week," which wasВ meant to encourage public transportation over private transport. And for one day thisВ September, all cars will beВ banned from theВ entireВ city center.
The city is looking for more ways to expand its car-free zones — one proposal would turn a popular four-lane boulevard into a pedestrian-only area . In February 2016, Brussels announced that diesel cars made prior to one thousand nine hundred ninety eight will be banned commencing in 2018.
Mexico City hopes to ban about two million cars from the city center.
In April 2016, Mexico City’sВ local government determined to prohibitВ a portion of cars from driving into the city center two days every work week and two Saturdays per month. It determines which cars can drive on aВ givenВ day usingВ a rotating system based on license plate numbers.
According to the Associated Press, the policy applies toВ an estimated two million cars and helps to mitigate the city’sВ highВ smog levels.
Vancouver is providing more street space to bikes and pedestrians.
While many of the aforementioned cities have enforced car bans, Vancouver has persuaded an enhancing number of residents to commute by public transport.
As Citylab notes , people in Vancouver takeВ half of all trips В by В foot, bike, bus, or subwayВ as of 2015.В This is considerably more than any US cityВ of comparable size, includingВ SeattleВ (21%) and Philadelphia (27%), according to a two thousand fifteen United Nations report.
The city’s car-free movement might have been spawned by urban designВ decisions, according toВ the nonprofit Streetfilms, which recently В interviewed key planning officials . Efforts includeВ turningВ part of a major avenue, called Granville Street, into a pedestrian mall in the 1970s and expanding the bike lane network in 2008.
The city also hosts a car-free day every June,В when it В bans cars fromВ busy blocksВ and sets up a street festivals.
Fresh York City is decreasing car traffic in petite doses.
However Fresh York City isn’t planning a car ban anytime soon, it is enlargening the number of pedestrian areas, along with bike share, subway, and bus options.
Strips of land in popular areas like Times Square,В Herald Square, and Madison Square Park are permanently pedestrian-only. On three Saturdays inВ August 2016, hundreds of thousands ofВ peopleВ will take advantage of Summer Streets, an annual event that prohibits cars from driving on a major thoroughfareВ connecting Central ParkВ to the Brooklyn Bridge, and opensВ roads for pedestrians.
"This is what everyday life could look like as if people mattered," saysВ Paul Steely White . "The worst thing as an urban dweller is to be stuck with the auto as your only option."В
Transportation Alternatives В also hopes to work with the city toВ create more pedestrian plazas. White saysВ urban planners are no longer attempting to optimize Fresh York City and other places for drivers, and are instead thinking about cities differently.
"Cities are coming to the realization that they need to sway the pendulum the other way," he says.
