As we settle into the 21st century, bike share schemes proliferate, more streets are being pedestrianised, public transport continues to expand, urban highways are being removed and cycling infrastructure is growing. So at this rate we won’t need cars in cities at all, right?
The reality of course is that in most cities, cars still dominate, their convenience and allure not yet undermined by their impact on health and the environment. Will the car-free urban vision only thrive in places like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Helsinki and Seville? What future does the car face in cities around the world?
Our readers shared their thoughts about urban transport, and discussed whether the end of the car age really could – or should – be in sight.
The debate: goodbye to cars in cities?
Many of our readers can’t wait for a day when cities are rid of private and polluting cars.
The cycling revolution could not happen sooner for me... bring on almost 'car free' cities!! I have been praying for this day since 1988
We have let ourselves slip into a tyranny of the motor car.
We have tarmacked over the places we live. Our children can no longer go out to play. We get asthma and lung cancer. We grow fat and unhealthy, we get diabetes. Thousands of us are killed and maimed every year under the wheels of cars and HGVs. We no longer know our neighbours. We sit for days and days each year in traffic jams.
I sincerely hope in future we look back on this period of madness in our history in horror, as something that has passed and that we will never go back to.
I live in Bangkok and decided after my last 9 year stint here with a car not to buy one. Life far less stressful than the previous 3 hour daily minimum in jams. One thing we do have which health and safety needs to get to grips with in the UK is the ‘motorcycle taxi’. Just hop on the back and zip to the nearest underground station.
Cars are an outdated symbol of wealth from a time when we had little idea of our effect on the planet. Pollution machines that can kill instantly. Of course there are benefits to fast travel but if more people cycled and used improved public transport on scales of cost for the luxury/speed of service, the air would be much better and far fewer people would be dying on the roads.
- naycha
In Denmark & the Netherlands mobility is improved for the elderly & disabled precisely because they prioritise cycling & walking over private cars. Mobility scooters & wheelchairs have full use of the universal high quality bike paths, & the elderly are often seen cycling well into their eighties. Cars have not been banned there, it’s just that every road transport decision takes the needs pedestrians & cyclists into consideration first, & private motorists last.
We are living in a period of history where the car dominates our lives. Not mine and not my kids, I look forward to a future where everywhere, not just Utrecht, a fantastic cycling city in the heart of the Netherlands, takes cycling seriously. I value a society that caters for all abilities and doesn’t treat cycling like it’s a dangerous sport.
People need cars (or at least want them)
Although there is talk of “peak car” , some of our readers pointed out that in certain places and situations, cars remain vital. Others anticipated that our culture’s love of the car is unlikely to wane.
While I think that reducing car numbers in cities is great, I hope all these planners remember that there are people who would be stuck in their homes all the time without a car.
Disabled people who need to carry a wheelchair/scooter plus equipment and or shopping for example, or coming from other places. Specially adapted vehicles are needed for them so having a car pool would not help.
In much of S.E.Asia the ownership of a car is a status thing only. Getting anywhere now takes far longer due to massive car jams but that doesn't stop even more car sales. Bangkok has been that way for years and now Thailands second city, Chiang Mai, has fallen foul to the same stupidity. An hour to cover 10 kms. Peoples houses cost far less than their cars, thats how crazy its got!
Life without the car may be practicable for the very rich, either of money or of time, but for the rest of us its a non-starter. Take my journey to work, from Hull to Manchester. Usually takes me 90 minutes in the car. If I were to do this on public transport, it would be 3 hours, one way!
I live in Leicester, which in 2013 was reckoned to be the 72nd most congested city in the world. I can’t see how this wonderful car-free vision can come about in a place like this. Our privatised bus system will provide transport to and from the city centre, but if you need to move in a different direction at any point, there won’t be a bus to take you. The buses are unreliable as well; you can’t expect them to regularly get you to work on time. Like the trains, they’re outrageously overpriced.
Are there practical alternatives for people who are unable to walk or cycle far - the very young, the very old, the disabled, the sick? What if my family and I fancy going out to the countryside for a while? How do we get there without a car? I don’t actually like living in a city, and if I can’t get away to some green once in a while, it has an effect on my well-being.
I don’t want to have to own a car, and I wish far fewer people around me had them as well. They’re expensive to buy and maintain; they pollute; they are a danger to pedestrians and cyclists (not to mention other vehicles on the road); they physically segregate areas; there are far too many of them . . . the list goes on. But I just don’t see enough practical alternatives on offer yet.
- LindaLou
I’m all for engines getting cleaner and emissions going down over time. I’m not in favour of restrictions on speed or power, when or where I can drive, or self driving cars.
But will it happen?
You thought that, for starters, cities would need extensive, affordable public transport networks and infrastructure that enables car alternatives – and therefore huge amounts of investment and bold leadership.
Sharing the right and best working ideas around the globe is speeding up this process of intelligent mobility. Yes, to a certain extent it might be wishful thinking at this point in time, but progress takes its time. I am positive on the outcome knowing my own share of taking action for it. It is quite a great feeling not to be alone with this vision.
There are probably more vans, lorries, taxis and buses in London now than there were all vehicle types in the 70's.
Also the public transport system can't take much more capacity. Not at peak times anyway.
Also the tube needs to run 24h (yes I know it's coming on weekends) and even more importantly the trains need to run 24h in south London.
I guess what I'm saying is unless there is huge investment, the car will be around for a good while.
Building solely for the needs of motor transport has proved a costly and deadly cul-de-sac, but reversing this lemming leap will take not just some cash, but lots of leadership, commitment and wrangling. Such commitment already exists in the Netherlands and Copenhagen where, by a variety of means, cycling as a mode of transport is not simply encouraged and promoted, but also aspired to and, most importantly, enabled.
In most of the English speaking world, bike travel is mistakenly viewed as a problem that can and should be solved by means of infrastructure designed more for the needs of motor traffic, to be only grudgingly provided for specifically, but in general to be pushed aside or totally eliminated altogether.
A mass cycling culture will only appear with the creation of safe spaces for cycling on. But in the UK we are many years away from having that outside some small pieces of London and a tiny number of other cities. It may cost money, but it will cost more in the long term to keep ignoring the elephant in the room. It has already been demonstrated almost everywhere properly designed protected bike lanes have been installed, that local business benefits, vulnerable road users benefit, and even those who continue to drive benefit. The UK’s own DfT reported that protected bike infrastructure would recoup £5 for every £1 spent on it.
- congokid
Living a car-free life is actually really cheap if you plan it right and the alternatives are accessible and low-cost. But for this process to be accelerated, we need that most hard to achieve thing: joined-up thinking. It is about ensuring easy and safe cycling and walking, cheap and convenient and reliable public transport, and a range of good value car hire schemes for those times when a car really is nice to use.
The potential for a real societal shift is there - anyone who visits a range of cities from Rennes to Copenhagen can see that the move creates wonderful, liveable cities, and these are where people want to live. We just need more and more smart nudges to keep the process going.
- PhilipD
The tram scheme in my nearest large city was scrapped, due to cost. Given this lack of infrastructure quality and expanse, can I assume that we’re not going to be part of this car-free utopia? I am no fan of motorcars in city centres, or indeed the curse of cars in general. However, the truth of the matter is no British cities are even CLOSE to London public transport wise. Invest heavily first, or hands off my car!
... and it wouldn’t work outside city centres
Consensus is that towns and suburbs are unlikely to get the sort of infrastructure investment received by city centres – so for many people, cars remain the only reliable option for getting around.
This discussion commonly shows the partition between people who live in densely built up cities like London or Birmingham and those outside those cities.
Having lived in both, I did not need a car in Sheffield, I lived 1 minute walk from a bus router and could go virtually anywhere in the city on bus, bike or tram.
Then I moved out and ever since have needed a car and currently own my own business with nationwide clients and I drive easily 500+ miles a week.
We also live in the suburbs now and I would say that we need a car to access basic services because there is no public transport.
So this leaves me needing a car for business & home life. I don't care if it's a car I drive myself or an automatic, but in reality a large percent of the population will need access to personal vehicles for decades to come because many journeys cannot be catered for by public transport.
Cars + cities = bad (arguably)
Cars + towns = essential.
Cities have a critical mass of housing, leisure and employment so that you rarely need to leave them. And it's all dense enough to be served conveniently with public transport. And maybe car-sharing and taxis to fill in any gaps.
But out in small town Britain (and many other countries) none of this applies. And the lower density living is appealing to families with children who typically need space. Out there cars are here to stay. And why not, they are twice as efficient as they were 20 years ago and with hybrids and electric cars coming along that progress is set to continue.
Not for a long, long time ...
I think we are a long way from seeing the end of the car. With all the infrastructure of roads, car parks and suburbs constructed over the past 50 years which assume car ownership. It will be much easier to adopt the electric car. Which is a shame in a way but there you go.
In Jakarta, Indonesia more than 1000 additional cars and motorcycles are added to an already overloaded road system every day! Not peak car here any time soon.
What about electric or shared cars?
If the future doesn’t get rid of cars entirely, could it see a different sort of car use? With electric cars mitigating pollution and shared car use cutting ownership, some readers discussed whether these transport formats could be the way forward.
But electric cars do not solve the problem. They might pollute less, but they still take up more road space than the alternatives, they still need to be parked somewhere. They still sever neighbourhoods and discouraging walking, play, community on streets.
Many of our cities had a troubled and incomplete adaption to the car in a short space of time. It is not so hard to reverse. Roads can still carry buses, trams, bikes, car parks can be turned into desperately needed housing. 60 and 70 flyovers are reaching the end of their structural life around now anyway.
Electric cars that use a battery recharged every day at home are not the solution. Perhaps the answer is electrified roads. Perhaps it is free electricity to recharge cars at all parking places in the city centre to encourage people to leave the big car at home. Let’s see governments round the world investing in this technology. The big incentive is that whoever comes out with the winning technology will then be the world leader.
- habuta
I don’t think it’s necessarily the car we need to ban completely from the city, but the internal combustion engine. Congestion is a bane for those who have to commute, but traffic noise and pollution have much wider reaching effects on our mental and physical health whether we drive or not.
- nilpferd
The real change to cities will come with autonomous cars, once the roads become full of supersafe autonomous vehicles it will be much less stressful to cycle about, no more dangerous close passes, no more having to worry about being rear-ended by some fool playing with their mobile phone and no need to worry about being knocked flying by someone pulling out of a junction who simply doesn't see cyclists.
The other blessing will be a changeover to electric cars or zero-emission cars. Right now it is disgusting cycling amongst fossil fuel burning vehicles and drivers are actually breathing in more fumes than cyclists (supposedly).
The author has a point about the mode is car ownership changing. I live in inner Sydney, just outside the CBD, and subscribe to a car sharing scheme ("Go Get"). It's brilliant. You look up a car that is near you, book it instantly with your smartphone, and then just walk up to it, enter with a tap of your smart card, and drive off. It's so convenient and so much cheaper than owning a car that it's hard to see why we would buy our own. Sydney has terrible public transport and is a nightmare to commute or navigate in, but schemes like this help immensely.
It's pretty simple really, in a lot of European cities the cost of owning and using a car now exceeds the alternatives, 40 years ago it was the other way around. Particularly if you live in an urban area and your travel is mostly within that urban area (or to other urban areas) it may not make sense to have a car.
I am a pretty good example of this - I live in Frankfurt and got rid of the car 2 years ago. Since then I use a mixture of bike, public transport, and taxis. I use a car from a car-share scheme or one of the big hire shops when I specifically need a car, which is 1-2 days a month on average. This has reduced my mobility costs by 60%. It won't work for everyone and it'll never work in rural areas, but simply more and more people are realising that a car is no longer a necessity.