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TechnoratiCar-Free Cities: An Idea with Legs
Car-free neighbourhoods are no unrealistic utopia – they exist all over Europe
A quarter of households in Britain – more in the larger cities, and a majority in some inner cities – live without a car. Imagine how quality of life would improve for cyclists and everyone else if traffic were removed from areas where people could practically choose to live without cars. Does this sound unrealistic, utopian? Did you know many European cities are already doing it?
![['Not anti-car, just pro-choice' ... a cyclist in Vauban, Germany. (Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/A-cyclist-in-Vauban-Germa-001.jpg "A-cyclist-in-Vauban-Germa-001.jpg")
Vauban in Germany
is one of the largest car-free neighbourhoods in Europe, home to more
than 5,000 people. If you live in the district, you are required to
confirm once a year that you do not own a car – or, if you do own one,
you must buy a space in a multi-storey car park on the edge of the
district. One space was initially provided for every two households,
but car ownership has fallen over time, and many of these spaces are
now empty.
Vehicles are allowed down the residential streets at walking pace to pick up and deliver, but not to park. In practice, vehicles are rarely seen moving here. It has been taken over by kids as young as four or five, playing, skating and unicycling without direct supervision. The adults, too, tend to socialise outdoors far more than they would on conventional streets open to traffic (behaviour that's echoed in the UK, too).
Most of the European car-free areas are smaller and "purer" than Vauban: vehicles are physically prevented from entering the streets where people live. Exceptions are made for emergency vehicles and removals vans but not for normal deliveries, which are made on foot, trolley or cycle trailer. A few peripheral parking spaces are available to buy (usually around one space for every five homes) and a few are reserved for car club vehicles. In all the examples I have studied, cycling is a vital means of transport.
Car-free areas of this kind, with anything from a couple of hundred to more than a thousand residents, exist in Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne, Hamburg and Nuremberg, among others. There is even a small one in Edinburgh.
There is another form of car-free development, so familiar we have until recently overlooked its potential. Most pedestrianised city or neighbourhood centres in Britain are almost entirely commercial. But a few farsighted councils, such as Exeter, have brought back housing and residents, without cars or allocated parking, into city centres that would otherwise be deserted after 6pm.
Groningen, the Netherlands' capital of cycling, has the largest car-free centre in Europe: half-pedestrianised, entirely closed to through traffic, with 16,500 residents, three-quarters of whom have no car in the household. Forty percent of all journeys within the city are made by bicycle.
Carfree UK, which I coordinate, was set up to promote European-style car-free development in this country. We are not anti-car, we are pro-choice. We have recently run public meetings in London to set up a new car-free association for London, which is beginning to look at areas of the city from which traffic could be removed. We know considerable potential demand exists for traffic-free housing in London, and probably in a number of other major cities. Where else do you think might be suitable?
• Steve Melia is coordinator of Carfree UK and a researcher at the University of the West of England
25 Comments so far
Show AllWhat an absolutely fantastic article. I'm not sure there's much sensibility here in the United States for this kind of thing. Things aren't done here on the basis of good ideas.
I'm part of the one percent that commutes to work by bike. I travel 13 miles a day (round trip), four days a week. On day 5, I drive the car, but I also use the car to pick up groceries on that day.
Here's the secret on how to do it: keep a bottle of witch hazel handy. There's no shower at work so I clean up with witch hazel, which kills bacteria yet is quite mild. You don't stink. I use Dickenson's brand - highly recommended.
http://www.dickinsonsusa.com/product_main.html
Sure that sounds freaky, but I feel better, have more energy and I don't consume as much gasoline. I have a fuel-efficient car, so I save maybe $7 a week by bike commuting.
-TIA
It is true that by and large, our rural america is just too damn big to do this. But our cities could certainly do it. I lived for a couple of years in Seattle with no car, and it was only occasionally a pain. I am currently walking and bussing, here in Bellingham, though I still have [and use from time to time] my little pickup. I look back on my no-car years with nostalgia.
Bicycles are amazing and versatile. They can be teamed up to pull heavy loads, can be geared for low or high speeds and offer a source of healthy activity for people of all ages. If people were paid to ride a bike to work a certain amount per trip
(say about $5), cardiovascular problams would decrease as much as 30% in the USA. That's billions in savings and it goes right into the average person's pocket. But then again, that would be a logical and rational thing for government to do. Since it wouldn't directly line elite pockets, it isn't considered regardless of the long term benefits to humanity and society.
But bicycle riding instead of driving already pays, as you point out here - why should the government pay anyone to do what is right for the people doing it?
Because by doing so, the government benefits both those individuals, and society as a whole. Which is the point of having a government.
You can spend a bit of money paying people to ride more, exercise more, or you can a spend a lot more resources, both directly and indirectly, when they get sick with all kinds of so called lifestyle diseases.
As a bike-commuting (3000 mi/yr) city dweller, I can tell you that Cars SUCK. Dirty, dangerous, earth killing. Not needed in town.
I live in San Francisco, which is compact, and has decent public transport.I can access a lot of stuff on foot, and major bus lines and trolley lines are one and three blocks from my front door.My wife has a car because her job requires it. We use it for the occasional long trip as well.If I want to get somewhere in the city in a hurry, I use a motorcycle.Bicycles are not an option for me-much more dangerous than a motorcycle-and the city is full of steep hills.There are scads of bicycles here, and some of the riders are pretty obnoxious-the No Wars For Oil crowd, who nevertheless don't mind benefiting from many of the other amenities of industrial civ-like electricity.They run stop lights and stop signs, run into people in crosswalks, and bounce off cabs, and often die in the process.A cab driver pal of mine calls them 'hamburger'.But their behavior is improving, as the public seems to be losing patience with them, and the police are actually busting some of them for not obeying the rules everyone else has to obey.There's a lesson here for in-your-face organizers.A bicyclist apologized to me the other day for narrowly missing me in a crosswalk.That's progress. Last year he would have flipped me the bird.
I too feel that pedestrians have right of way over bikes. It is easy though to develop a bad attitude about cars.
Great article.
No basis in fact for those of us that do not live in highly populated areas unforunatly. My closest village is 11 km away and the closest town with supermarkets and and shopping is 110 km.
110km, unless you are very fit that means it would be at least a 2 day journey. Not going to happen. Find another way or come up with sugestions that work for everybody. Or when you write articles like this do NOT presume the ideas presented will work for everyone or present your article as though they will.
Pete
Getting the urban people out of their cars should work nicely for you, though.
"If you live in the district, you are required to confirm once a year that you do not own a car – or, if you do own one, you must buy a space in a multi-storey car park on the edge of the district. One space was initially provided for every two households, but car ownership has fallen over time, and many of these spaces are now empty."
*******************
With appologies to Joni Mitchell:
Big Yellow Taxi Revisited
They banned motor vehicles so people could enjoy their town
With pedstrians, bikers, and joggers able to move around
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They banned motor vehicles so people could enjoy their town
They took all the cars and put 'em in a parking museum
And then they charged all their owners lots of money just to go and see 'em.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They banned motor vehicles so people could enjoy their town
Hey motorists get rid of all your stinkin' machines
Give me fresh air, quiet, and neighbors I can get to know, please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They banned motor vehicles so people could enjoy their town
Poet
I currently live in Vauban, which is simply a neighborhood belonging to the city of Freiburg. The article is an accurate description of life here. It is a joy living in this environment, even if riding my bike in the spring rain can be a pain in the ass. ;-)
For a very nice, effective cyclist's rain cape that will make riding in spring rain (or summer rain, fall rain, or winter snow) actually enjoyable, see the Campmor catalog (search on 'rain cape' or 'bicycle cape'). I bought mine a few years ago and it's been serving me well. Bright yellow, hooded, $29.95 then and still, hergestellt in den VSA.
All I need to ride in the rain is rims on the wheels so they don't splash up water on me and a ballcap to keep the rain off my glasses. Getting soaked from riding a bike is actually fun for me.
I have never driven a car, and never plan to. I don't currently own a bike though, I don't need one where I am now. The buses are great, and some destinations are so close to home or work I can just walk.
Yeah, DC has some nice places to live car-free.
My wife had a temp job as a costumer for the Folger Theater in the Capitol Hill/Eastern Market Neighborhood. All kinds of local produce and cheeses (and meats if you eat animals) were a short walk away at the Eastern Market (Government-run public vendor-stall markets used to be common in most cities - yes, Socialism). Lots of other shops and restaurants a short walk away too.
The Smithsonian museums and art galleries were just a slightly longer walk away too (They are Socialism too). But I never could get used to the spooky post-911 security measures and police presence around the Capitol (Fascism, not socialism).
But boy, are the rents high there. How do you afford the high rents in DC?
Easy, I rent a bedroom out of a rowhouse full of renters. Craigslist was pretty useful for moving here from Florida, with no deposit.
Look at http://www.pedalpeople.com/ where bicycles are successfully competing with the trucking industry.
Thanks. I will.
I believe people should also seriously start reconsidering the horse. It's alive, loyal, friendly, strong and can get you away from trouble in a hurry. They can, unfortunately, be used as weapons as well.
Some good news, for a change!
Yes, what about the United States? Does Obama own a bicyle and, if so, does he use it?
Anything remotely like this in the US I wonder?
Davis California
While it doesn't have restrictions on car use aside from resident parking permits, the close-in neighborhood of Pittsburgh I lived in until recently (Bloomfield) had all the amenities to easily live car-free. It was a short walk to all normal shopping and eating or drinking out, bikeable (traffic moves slowly on the main streets and one can use back-streets to get anywhere), and frequent bus service. My job was downtown, just 3 miles away, and busses went ther every 10 minutes. As is the case with such old-style neighborhoods, Bloomfield is practically corporte chain-free, most busineses are the mom-and-pop variety, and low traffic speeds and low car use relative to population density meant it was quieter than the suburban areas I've lived in.
Most Pittsburghers laugh at this (eh, rocky hill), but moving there from a life in generic car-mandatory suburbia was a big epiphany to me. It's the rust belt, and a bit run-down in places, but for the first time, I was living in a place that was "real" - not a "Max and Erma's" or "Olive Garden" fake corporate representation of realness. I suspect the fake corprate-chain version is all most middle-class USAn suburbanites have ever known nowadays.
Avalon, on Catalina island in CA, limits the number of cars. The only things you see around there are golf carts and mopeds.
Wow. Great place, Avalon.