TL;DR: yes, probably.
But don’t panic.
A common misconception is that a car-free city is one without any cars in it at all; that’s not true. ‘Car-free’ usually means a pedestrianised city centre – that is, one that prioritises active travel (like bikes, walking and scooting) and public transport over personal vehicles. Venice, Madrid, Paris and Barcelona are all examples of cities with large pedestrianised areas. It’s more common than you think.
The strategy we’ve got is not about being anti-car. It’s about providing a safe, easy alternative, enabling people to think, ‘Actually, it’s easier, it’s quicker, it’s more fun, it’s healthier, to walk, to cycle, or to use public transport‘. And that for me is the future.”
Will Norman, the Walking & Cycling commissioner for London, said on the Practical Democracy Podcast: “The strategy that we’ve got is not about saying this all needs to be car-free or anti-car. It’s about providing a safe, easy alternative, enabling people to ditch their car and think, ‘Actually, it’s easier, it’s quicker, it’s more fun, it’s healthier, to walk, to cycle, or to use public transport‘. And that for me is the future.”
30% of global emissions come from transport. Many countries having implemented sweeping targets of net zero emissions by 2050 – so reducing reliance on personal vehicles is at the top of the agenda for many public bodies. The movement promoting car-free cities is growing, with initiatives rooting around the world. Even Birmingham, UK, a city known for its sprawling spaghetti junctions and swathes of motorways, has made a pledge to reduce reliance on cars.
Car-free cities are coming. So how are we going to get there?
1. Data, data and more data
People want to feel safe on the roads. The fundamental piece is getting the infrastructure right for cycling, but you need to work and engage with communities.
Will Norman
To make the transition towards greener modes of transport, planners need to gather a lot of information. How do people move around the area? What routes do they take? Do they use existing infrastructure, create their own routes, or use a combination of both? What measures would they like to see implemented and what ones would they avoid? How do they use their cars and what would encourage them to use them less?
There are lots of ways to gather data like this. I’ve seen a lot of noise about sensors and smart cities lately on Twitter. But I’d argue that the best way to gather this information (with actual consent, no less!) is, you know, to ask people. Good-quality community engagement is the key here.
Will Norman said: “People want to feel safe on the roads…The fundamental piece is getting the infrastructure right for cycling, but after that, then you need to work and engage with communities, you need to have community projects.”
A great example of good transport engagement is Warwickshire’s proposed new active travel plan for the area on Citizen Space. It features loads of proposals for improved walking and cycling across the borough. For such a detailed activity, it presents a ton of information very clearly. They’ve used informational interactive maps, fact banks and tables as different ways of presenting information, in a way that allows the user to choose how much of it they want to read or consume. Plus it’s routed in a way that’s easy to follow and provides a good user experience.
2. Aggregated small actions
The concept of a car-free city can seem bit like pie in the sky, but local authorities are already putting a lot of measures in place to reduce emissions and encourage active travel. You can browse through them on the Citizen Space Aggregator. Our customers are engaging on everything from making emergency COVID travel routes permanent, to clean air/low emission zones, to EV charging points, and more.
Individually these seem like small things, but if a city is implementing lots of them the overall effect is that the air is cleaner, your commute is quieter, and it’s much easier to get around if you’re not in a car.
3. Updated legislation
In many countries, legislation is a barrier to making rapid changes to the road network. The TRO system in the UK places a huge time and cost burden on councils when making transport-related changes. For example, a TRO is needed for each individual public electric vehicle charge point. To make the sweeping changes required if we want a low-car future, we need to update legacy legislation without compromising on safety and democratic input.
So, yes – car-free cities are likely the future. There’s lots of work to do, but with sensible community engagement and informed decision-making, the transition away from cars can be a smooth one. To quote Will Norman a final time: “If you build it, people come.”
Check out a recording of the Practical Democracy Project event we hosted last year, ‘Why aren’t TROs trending?’
And if you want to hear more from Will Norman, check out the episode of the Practical Democracy Podcast on which he featured. You can also follow him on Twitter.
If you’d like to learn more about what Citizen Space can do for your organisation, book a free demo and we’ll walk you through it.