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13 votes
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More lanes are (still) a bad thing
32 votes -
You don't need a license to walk
41 votes -
Bollards and ‘superblocks’: how Europe’s cities are turning on the car
17 votes -
Barcelona car free super blocks have social benefits - help reduce loneliness
23 votes -
Joe Biden administration offers $35 billion in low-interest loans to support US transit-oriented development
24 votes -
Avoriaz: a ski city in the sky
6 votes -
Ending minimum parking requirements was a policy win for the Twin Cities
16 votes -
How much of your US city is parking lots?
30 votes -
New York City announces major public space and transit improvements for Downtown Brooklyn
17 votes -
Cleveland: New city policy would eliminate mandatory parking near transit corridors
12 votes -
Parking laws are strangling America
49 votes -
Cities aren't loud: Cars are loud
10 votes -
Megacities: Reality or fiction? Architecture in sci-fi
4 votes -
Investigating the mysteriously feel-good "Texas Turnaround"
11 votes -
Physical buttons outperform touchscreens in new cars, test finds
24 votes -
Velocipedia - Bicycles based on people’s attempts to draw them from memory
16 votes -
Why rails buckle under the heat in Britain
6 votes -
Inside Toronto's skyscraper boom
4 votes -
Business parks don’t have to suck
10 votes -
Hyundai electrifies its 1986 grandeur in a retro-futuristic restoration
13 votes -
Throwing good money after bad car infrastructure
10 votes -
Three strange river crossings
4 votes -
The ugly, dangerous, and inefficient stroads found all over the US and Canada
17 votes -
Snøhetta, the world's first tunnel for large ships, has been approved and will soon begin looking for contractors in Norway – expected to begin construction in 2022
6 votes -
Cycling through the streets of Amsterdam
7 votes -
Utrecht: Planning for people and bikes, not for cars
11 votes -
Paris has a plan to keep cars out after lockdown
20 votes -
2020 Scottsdale Collectible Car Auction Preview: The million-dollar cars
4 votes -
Your car doesn’t need a touchscreen in it
40 votes -
The Dutch hardly bike at all
12 votes -
The A2 motorway no longer divides Maastricht
5 votes -
The greening of Paris makes its mayor more than a few enemies
9 votes -
We replaced sixty-eight Tube adverts with cats
13 votes -
Copenhagen has taken bicycle commuting to a whole new level
5 votes -
Want safe, bikeable streets? Get rid of free parking, as Amsterdam did
14 votes -
Car-free in Los Angeles? Don't laugh
9 votes -
How Utrecht became a paradise for cyclists
6 votes -
‘I think therefore I cycle’: Fifty years of Dutch anti-car posters – in pictures
16 votes -
Do better bike lanes keep drivers safer?
3 votes -
If only experienced cyclists feel safe in a bike lane, then is it a bike lane at all? In Vancouver, a shift to “AAA” (all ages and abilities) bike lanes
15 votes -
Jane Jacobs and the death and life of American planning
6 votes -
Could Barcelona’s plan to push out cars and build superblocks work in the US?
11 votes -
Can car-crazy Dallas learn to love bikes?
7 votes -
The magic of roundabouts
11 votes -
In car-choked Brussels, the pedestrians are winning
6 votes -
A highway runs through it: Inside the push to tear down an Oakland freeway
6 votes -
To build the cities of the future, we must get out of our cars
13 votes -
A modest proposal to eliminate 11,000 urban parking spots
6 votes -
Suburbs and car centric urban design is the worst mistake in modern history
Designing our countries to accommodate cars as much as possible has been one of the most destructive things to our health, environment, safety and social connectedness. The damage has spread so...
Designing our countries to accommodate cars as much as possible has been one of the most destructive things to our health, environment, safety and social connectedness. The damage has spread so far and deep that it has reached a crisis point in most developed cities in almost every country. The suburbs we live in are subjected to strict zoning laws baring any form of high density building and any form of mixed zoning. As a result our houses are spaced so far away from each other and from the essential services we need that unless you own a car you are blocked from having a normal life. The main streets full of independent stores and markets have all been killed by megamalls 30km away from where people live with carparks bigger than most park lands. All of this was caused by car usage pushing our societies further and further apart to the point where many people find it acceptable and normal to drive 40km each direction to work each day.
One of the more devastating effects of this urban sprawl is the supermarket has been moved so far away that most people avoid going as much as possible and limit it to a single trip every 1-2 weeks. Fresh food does not last 1-2 weeks which leaves people throwing out mountains of spoiled food that wasn't eaten in time as well as the move to processed foods packed full of preservatives. As well as a shift to people buying dinner from drive through takeaway franchises because their hour long commute has left them with little time to cook fresh and healthy foods.
Owning a car in many countries is seen as the only way to get a job. This locks the poor from ever regaining control of their life because the cost of owning and maintaining a car is higher than most of these people get in an entire year. Our city streets which should be places of vibrant liability have become loud, unsafe and toxic.
Elon and his electric cars solve none of these issues. Electric cars are not the way of the future. They don't even solve air pollution issues entirely because a large part of air pollution is brake pad fibres and tire wear which is proportional to the vehicles weight. And these Teslas are not light.
The only solution is reducing personal vehicle usage as much as possible in urban areas. Of course there will always be some people who will genuinely need vehicles such as in rural areas but there is simply no reason to have the average person drive to and from their office or retail job every day. Its wasteful and harmful in so many ways.
There needs to be a huge push to reclaim our cities and living spaces to bring back the liveability that we could have had. In my city some of the side streets were closed to cars and the change was incredible. Plants and seating filled the spots that would have once been a row of free parking. The streets are filled with the sounds of laughter instead of the roar of motors. The local pubs and cafes have benefited hugely. They didn't benefit at all from street side car parks that were always filled by people who have done 5 laps of the city looking for an empty park and do not intend to shop there.
What is everyone's opinion on this topic and what can we do about it?
64 votes