Why Cities Of The Future Need To Be Designed For Cars And People

I read a tweet today from #WalrusTalks: "Let's design cities for people, not cars." Of typical slogans that are more propaganda than perspicacity, @BrentTodarian has it wrong. In designing cities, we don't want to fully omit cars, but simply put them in their place. 

I've heard people like Todarian before with their arguments that rely on the exponential rate of change. By the year 2050, automobiles will exceed 5 Billion on the planet earth and we'll be swallowed up by them with nowhere to walk, no green spaces, no more wildlife, etc--just cars. I do agree with Todarian that cities should accommodate people (look at places like Milan or Florence in which there are streets for people); but there should also be ways in which you can drive the city. Who doesn't like a good drive through the city? One of the things I've enjoyed since a child is getting in the car at night and driving through downtown Toronto. And we've seen what Le Corbusier and others have done to the city with high-rises and large empty green spaces that look good on city working drawings, but in reality have done more to victimize people (with green spaces around apartments being breeding grounds for crime) that liberate them to their natural selves. And let's not forget that every day there are places being reclaimed for wildlife; places humans are banned from entering. 

The vehicle offers an element of human freedom that public transit simply doesn't accommodate, and thus it remains important to the urban experience. In a world of growing cities, the landscape ought to accommodate those who want to walk and those who want to drive--how those two travel media work and operate together is a matter of masterful design. But to throw out the vehicle de facto casts all city dwellers into some kind of socialist soup that creates a hegemony on its own: the hegemony of some kind of uncritical eco-socialism that makes choices for people rather than gives them greater freedom of mobility. 

And let's not forget the times of unpredictability we're living in. I still remember standing on Yonge and Bloor Street in Toronto at 9/11: the subways were jammed, people were hightailing it west on Bloor on foot, and the buses at over-capacity were passing people at the stops. If a city is in a time of crisis and does not accommodate its citizens from fleeing it, how humane is that? 

It's up to urban planners for the future to design the right balance of human liberation: the liberation of movement and rhythm (people) and the liberation of autonomy and comfort (cars). How to do that is beyond my skills and training--we'll leave that up to the brilliant urban planners like Todarian.