It is often said that we love our cars. This may be true for
many people. But some of us would prefer not to drive. Yes,
really.
Why? The huge amounts of money our cars cost us, having to
battle our way through rush-hour traffic, hunting for parking spaces,
dangerous drivers ... the list goes on.
Unfortunately, the modern world has been so designed around the car
that it is almost impossible to live without one. And so we carry
on driving.
This is plainly ridiculous. Cars aren't exactly good for the
environment, with even zero-emission vehicles being enormously wasteful
of energy. And while someone driving everywhere because they
choose to is one thing, forcing the rest of us to do likewise when we really don’t want to is
stupidity in the extreme.
But, says the government, we're locating new development to be accessible by walking, cycling and public transport as well as by
car.
It's not much of a choice though, is it? Yes we can walk, but
we're still breathing in everyone else's car fumes. We've still
got to wait for the little green man just to cross the street. And
our overcrowded buses still get stuck behind all those single occupancy
cars.
If we're going to give up our cars we want all the benefits that
can bring: clean air, networks of pedestrian streets and excellent
public transportation.
Walkability
Walking is the greenest mode of transport there is.
It's also healthy, and leads to more vibrant communities. And,
having spent the last 50+ years designing our towns and cities so
completely around the car, today's planners are at last beginning to see
its importance.
But they're not going far enough.
Pedestrian Streets
Compare the 2 streets
pictured below:
The first street is a traffic-calmed street with wider than usual
footpaths; a balance between cars and people. But air pollution,
noise and danger, while reduced compared to an ordinary 30mph road, are
far from eliminated. And the street is still dominated by cars,
both visually and by right of way.
The second, fully pedestrianised street is altogether more pleasant.
Footsteps and
voices are the only sounds. The air is clean. And if you want to
visit a shop on the other side of the
street you just cross, with no fear of being run down. It's a
place for people, not machines.
Access by Proximity
Less obviously, cars also spread cities out with all their roads and car parks until
walking is no longer an option anyway.
We need to build communities compact enough to have a full range of
services - grocery stores, schools, post offices etc. - within a 5 to 10
minute walk of every home.
Better Public Transport
Public transport (assuming it has more than a handful of passengers
onboard) uses less energy and produces less pollution than if the same
number of people had travelled by car, and it requires less land. With
full buses and trams these savings are substantial.
But just providing us with an alternative to our cars is not enough.
Public transport needs to be fast, convenient and pleasant to ride.
And the great investment this requires can only be justified if ridership is
high.
Picture a city where most people travel by car. With little
investment the bus service is adequate at best, with buses running
infrequently and getting bogged down by everyone else's cars. So
anyone with a choice switches back to their car, and less riders means
even less investment and the service gets worse still.
Now imagine if everyone in that same city used public transport.
With so many riders we could have buses running every few minutes - we would
need them to to move
so many people - and all night long. There would be no traffic
for them to get caught up in. And with that much investment we
could replace the diesel buses with electric trolleybuses or trams. Everyone would benefit.
Cars and Freedom
For those of you worrying about losing the freedom your
car brings, don't. Living in a pedestrian city doesn't mean
getting rid of your car, it just means parking it a little further away.
And if you find you're only driving occasionally you can
join a carshare scheme instead, saving thousands of pounds a year but
still giving you access to a car when you need one.
Or, if you're still not convinced, look at it this way:
the more people there are living in pedestrian cities, then the fewer
cars in front of you on your drive to work.
