Traffic is created by cars, even in city centers. After we've been living with cars for over a hundred years, and most cities are car-centric, some people are slowly starting to realize that cars don't actually belong in an urban space or a city center. And they are not only led to this realization by terrible numbers from the chronicle and the smog indicator. Cars are simply no longer a convenient means of transportation. In London, for example, today, traffic moves slower than a bicycle. So let's take a look at which cities are on the way to making the car "persona non grata".
Traffic and cars they definitely have too much weight in our lives, especially if we think that what 106 days we waste looking for a parking space, and the residents of Los Angeles every year 90 hours they survive trapped in columns. Therefore, it is not surprising that so many cities are choosing cars to emerge from their centers, either through fines, through better spatial plans, through apps, and in some places they even pay people to leave their cars at home.
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Let's look at some of the cities that are considered the most strict and decisive for traffic and car chasers from their neighborhoods. None of them are planning extermination, but apparently they just realized that there should be streets adapted for humans and not cars.
Traffic in Madrid
Madrid has already expelled most of the traffic from certain streets, and now the car-free zone is expanding even further. With the car is this one one and a half square kilometers a large area accessible only to residents, and for all others, the ride costs approx 90 euros (to the extent of the penalty). With this rate of expansion, the Spanish capital will expel all traffic from the center in the next five years, 24 busiest streets and will be adapted for pedestrians. Of course, they also use other methods. Major polluters among cars will now have to pay more for parking spot, like the more organic one.
Traffic in Paris
Last year, when Paris wrapped itself in the most dense ever a cloud of smog, introduced "even and odd days" for the day. In some places, the pollution level fell by 30%, which has fueled local authorities to continue discouraging people from traffic and car use. The first measure. Anyone who does not live in the center will not be allowed to drive here for weekends, but this can later be stretched over a whole week. Until 2020 they are also supposed to double the number of bike lanes, drive out diesels and limit the busiest roads to electric vehicles and those with low emissions. Meanwhile, the number of drivers is already steadily falling. Today 60% The Parisians have no vehicle, only the 40% did not have one in 2001.
Traffic in Chengdu
Emerging China's south-western satellite city, which will border Chengdu, could in the future serve as exemplary case of a modern suburb. Instead of a city plan that would require driving, the streets in it will be made so that each location on foot reachable within 15 minutes. The city, founded by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill, is not calling for the complete banishment of the car, but it will be available for motorized vehicles only half of the road surface. It will be connected to its satellite via public transport, and the plan is to make it easy 80 thousand inhabitants walked to work. The project should start after 2020.
Traffic in Hamburg
Hamburg does not intend to ban cars and traffic, as has been wrongly presented in the past, but it wants it to easier to get around without a car. So people will abandon them of their own accord and not under "force". "Green Grid" will be completed in the next twenty years and will connect the city's parks, making it possible to cycle and walk anywhere. She will cover 40% urban areas. The city is also greening up the parks, which are already notoriously overcrowded with tin the A7 highway.
Traffic in Helsinki
Helsinki has a bright future in the next few decades a flood of new residents, but the more people there are, the fewer cars will be allowed on city streets. That's why the authorities presented a plan that will transform the car-dependent urban area into a community where everything is possible reach by walking, and the center will be accessible by high-speed public transport. They are also preparing a special service "mobility on command". For this purpose, an application was created, which residents are already testing, with the help of which residents can share a bike, taxi or car or find the nearest bus or train station. The wish is that in 10 years traffic and cars will no longer be necessary.
Traffic in Milan
Milan is characterized by traffic, fashion and smog. But not Smog as a clothing brand. That's why the city made use of an interesting reception. If drivers they leave their vehicle at home, they get free transportation by public transport. And how do city authorities check that someone is not cheating? They prepared a special a box, which is mounted on the dashboard, connected to the Internet and tracks the location of the car. Thus, the system cannot be brought around. And every day that the car stays at home, the city sends the owner voucher with equivalent value bus or train tickets.
Traffic in Copenhagen
Forty years ago, traffic in Copenhagen was a problem like in any other big city. Today it is half of the population rides to work by bike. Namely, the Danish capital has started to introduce pedestrian zones in the center already in the 60s, and since then the car-free areas have only been expanding. So the city today has a via 320 kilometers cycle paths, but also in the making four-lane bicycle lanes, which will stretch their arms to the suburbs. No wonder it has one of the lowest percentages of car ownership in Europe.
