These 7 Cities Are Going Car-Free--Should They Be Celebrated Or Shunned?

There's a death-warrant out on cars--no seriously. In fact, between the climate change argument against them and the carte blanche decision of most urban designers who believe cars don't make sense in cities, we may be hard-pressed to find a car in any city within the next 5-10 years. Sure there may be the odd autonomous vehicle carting people around who are willing to pay the big bucks to have them, but for the most part, cities will be places for people--not cars.

The following are 7 cities that are moving toward the carless:

1. Madrid

2. Paris

3. Chengdu (China)

4. Hamburg

5. Helsinki

6. Milan

7. Copenhagen

While these cities are not (yet) banning cars completely, they will most certainly deter automobiles from their centres, whether through designing the city to be walkable to any destination within 15 minutes (Chengdu) or creating a network of green spaces and parks all connected around the city through which bikes and pedestrians can travel but not automobiles (Hamburg). 

The issue remains how people are expected to get out of the city in the event of a disaster or attack. By shutting down the autonomy of the automobile, the individual is veritably shut into the city. What if the city imposed a lock-down and there was no way out? Suppose you had to get out during a pandemic, but couldn't because there was no other way besides transit which either a) was on lock-down, or b) was full of infected people? 

And how would people be able to get into the city? Say you had a family member while an attack was immanent, such as an elderly person, whom you wanted to get out of the city, but couldn't drive into it to pick him or her up? 

There is most certainly a minimalistic aesthetic to this kind of automobile-free urban design that I resonate with; however, if the beauty is supposed to follow the functionality, then there is a major flaw to outlawing vehicles. If you are in a city on lock-down, there's no way to get out--period. And while that may be good for those who are infected with a deadly virus, one's ability to flee such a pandemic is also impeded. 

Without a vehicle, you are under the caprice of the city transit system. Your bike can only get you so far so fast. There is something democratic about having a vehicle; however, it seems that a condition for living in the city of the future will be to relinquish that facile method for human transportation. 

In the headlong journey to green, we need to pause and determine if those policies and plans are in fact in our best interests. Don't think that all will be relinquishing their vehicles: those with the money and political clout will have them. It's those everyday folk who won't--and that should be a concern.