Car-free movement
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The car-free movement is composed of people who believe that the automobile (and especially private car ownership) has an overall negative impact on people and the planet. Many of the individuals and organisations in the movement are united under the umbrella group World Carfree Network, which calls itself "the hub of the global carfree movement."
A principle argument is that human settlements exist to maximise opportunities for interaction and exchange and minimise the need for transport(ation). This is reflected in the remaining carfree cities that exist today from the pre-car era, which represent almost the entirety of human history. These cities have no street space devoted exclusively to movement (streets were used as places to meet, buy, sell, etc.). Further the street space itself was minimised, with streets generally 1-8 metres in width. The carfree movement argues that this type of environment tends to be very pleasant, lively and peaceful, as well as leading to a strong sense of place and sense of community. Further, such environments make cars unnecessary, as it's both possible and practical to reach one's daily destinations on foot (distances are greatly reduced by the compact urban form, which maximises space efficiency). Moreover, such environments have little or no space available for cars. To make room for a single car would require hundreds of people (and their wares, etc.) to vacate the streets, marketplaces and public squares. The impact would be comparable to a car driving through an indoor shopping mall, including down the narrow aisles of the individual stores. Because of the car's high space requirements, some have called it "an elephant in the bedroom." Modern cities have addressed this problem by building wide roads and therefore sprawled-out cities, in which up to 60% of the surface area is devoted to the automobile. This has led to the dispersal of destinations, creating distances that require motor vehicles to overcome them.
The carfree movement believes that in today's settlements, changes in infrastructure, urban form, and transport modes are needed to ensure that we have high-quality living environments in which it's not necessary to accommodate the automobile. Applying the lessons of, and recreating the scale of, pre-car settlements is seen as key. It is also desired to visibly convert car-oriented space into destinations that the public would support. For example, an intersection might become a public square with outdoor cafes, a concert space, benches, trees and a playground. In a particular place, the transition would require public support, political will and sometimes long-term dedication. The example of central Copenhagen is often cited, in which the city successfully transformed car parks into carfree public squares, and car-dominated streets into carfree streets, over a 40-year period.
The movement comprises several focuses:
- those promoting alternatives to car dependence and car culture, including alternative transport methods such as cycling, walking and public transport;
- those promoting car-free lifestyle choices, within either a "car-dependent", "car-lite" or "carfree" local context;
- those promoting the building of (usually mixed-use) carfree environments preferably on brownfield but also on greenfield sites;
- those promoting Car Free Days, using the events as tools to bring about long-term on-the-ground change in infrastructure and priorities (example: Bogotá);
- those promoting the transformation of existing villages, towns and cities or parts of them into car-free environments, where this is not already the case; and
- those promoting planning methods to remove the need for car usage.
Several terms have been coined, and have gained some currency within the movement:
Car-lite - Either a person or place that is not completely carfree, but uses or allows for a variety of alternative transport modes in addition to the car. On a small scale, this is exemplified by the living street or Woonerf, now widespread in Northern Europe. In the United States and Canada, the term transit-oriented development is applied to some "car-lite" districts. The New Urbanists are a group of Canadian and US architects, developers and planners who promote and build environments that are somewhat car-lite, expressly stating that the automobile must be accommodated. One increasingly popular tool for cutting back on the number of cars in any place is carsharing, by which in a well run scheme anywhere from 5 to 20 cars can be replaced by a single shared vehicle.
Car-free environments - Places that do not accommodate (permit the entry of) automobiles. Some car-free environments allow motorised vehicles for deliveries and emergency services; other such places use non-motorised alternatives for some or all of these purposes, which proponents find preferable if feasible. Some car-free environments have peripheral parking, and are thus still somewhat car-dependent. Large areas of the world are simply inaccessible by car, and have always been so. Some people take things a step further and work to encourage local use of local products, thus reducing the dependence of their car-free environment on long-distance goods transport and striving to support the local economy over the transnational economy.
[edit] See also
- Car Free Days (Provides a timeline on key car free events going back to mid 20th century)
- List of carfree places
- Carfree Cities
- Reclaim the Streets
- Transport 2000
- Carless days (New Zealand)
- Utility cycling
- Community bicycle program
- Segregated cycle facilities
- World Naked Bike Ride
- Critical Mass
- Sustainable transportation
- New Mobility Agenda
[edit] Further reading
- Carfree Cities, Crawford, J. C., 2000
- Divorce Your Car! Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile, Alvord, Katie, 2000, New Society Publishers, ISBN 0865714088
- The Little Driver, Wagner, Martin, 2003, Pinter & Martin, ISBN 978-0-9530964-5-9
