People Hate the Idea of Car-Free Cities

I love living in a car free city. I can't believe America doesn't build more cities like mine.

I'm living a car-free lifestyle, despite holding a license to drive. It's more freedom than I've ever had.

I sometimes make the mistake of driving to college because it's faster. I'm always way less happy and focused (and sad cause of having to pay for parking). Ebikes are the shit. It's about 15 minutes driving and a 25-30 minute bike ride.
Been there at times. It's great not having to pay and worry about a car (done that at times as well). Yet, if you need to move house or get somewhere difficult, you can lease or borrow a car or van. And you can be an extra driver on trips.

I feel like this is people about most things. Most people aren't very imaginative.

They're kind of stupidly in favor of how things are, but once it changes they're like this is great I don't know why we didn't do it before.

Like imagine if free public libraries didn't exist and someone tried to create them. Conservatives would shit their pants hating it.

Not just conservatives.
- Yah, Plenty of liberals shit them selves when you suggest giving an unalloyed good away for free.
IMO part of the fix for that is liberating psychedelics. There has been some research finding that if someone takes psilocybin (shrooms) before they reach the age of 35, they are significantly more open minded for the rest of their life. Though I’m not sure how they controlled for the question as to whether the drug makes people more psychologically flexible or whether they are more psychologically flexible in the first place if they are willing to try it.
Either way, it seems to naturally follow that conservatives proportionally tend to avoid psychedelics. It’s anecdotal but my fellow psychonauts are all liberal.

As French :
Amsterdam my love.

Almost no cars at all,
Pure joint, with no tobacco,
No noise,

Europeans and their weed with tobacco, smh my head
- Ah ah you know it. For real.
  PS : for the anecdote, tobacco is forbidden inside a coffee shop there.
- My friend went to France back in the day and blew people's minds when he rolled a tobacco free joint
- Tobacco mixed with cannabis seems like a good way to ruin quality weed.
- So you don´t like blunts? Why do you even mind how others enjoy their weed, just let people do their thing, smh ...

Disneyland is a good comparison for some Americans: imagine having to drive to each ride and restaurant

"What seems to work best is a carrot-and-stick approach—creating positive reasons to take a bus or to cycle rather than just making driving harder."

I guess this is why we shouldn't only play the "fuck cars" tune but also include melodies like "we love to bike" and "public transport is fun" 😉

Public transport IS fun! Much easier to masturbate on the train than while driving a car
public transport is fun
Unfortunately here public transport is seen as something best left to 'the market', instead of treating it as a public commodity which gets its economic value from enabling people to contribute to economy by enabling them to get to work, go shopping etc. So now ticket prices are ridiculous, to the point where taking the car is 2-3 times cheaper. And of course you'll need to get to said transport first. Need a bus? If you do not live in a city or larger town you're just shit out of luck after 18:00 or so. Need to be somewhere, somewhat early in the morning? Wel tough luck for you, make sure to have somebody with a car standby to drop you off at the nearest train station. I want to like public transport and consider it fun, but my experience every time I try it is pain, suffering and awkward schedules instead. ☹️
- Okay, now factor in car insurance and maintenance costs. I don't buy your statement "taking the car is 2-3 times cheaper".
- Can you specify where "here" is?
Unfortunately it's easier (say: cheaper) to make driving so expensive and hard that it makes public transport look like the carrot, than actually making public transport more attractive so it actually becomes the carrot.
- That's why the method is called carrot and stick!

I imagine bikes will be very useful in making US cities walkable. The streets have been built very wide to make space for cars, which would make walking more tedious, but bikes are the perfect solution to this bc they let you cover more (flat) distance with just the power of your legs.

Every two lane road has enough space for four lanes of bicycles (one passing lane for ebikes and one lane for normal bikes going in each direction)
- I love this. It's a simple way to train an open-minded carbrain that there are easy ways to convert existing infrastructure on the cheap!
People absolutely be going the e bike route.
- The only thing keeping me from regularly using bikes or ebikes for short distance travel are the cars and trucks sharing the same space that ignore bike lanes and try to get as close as they can to you when they pass you, and if I try to use the largely unused sidewalks and dip into the street to avoid the occasional pedestrians I get a ticket.
Ebikes.

Why would anyone hate that? To me it sounds like a utopia. I just had to buy new tires for my car @#$%*!

Boomers. I was blown away when I went to a city hall meeting about expanding the roads and hearing their hot takes.
After the wave of old boomers (most of the audience) complained about how dangerous the whole world has become that they can't even take their trash out on the street, they say a walkable city just opens up "more danger".
To them, walkable streets means seeing more diversity, which is apparently super scary.
- It makes perfect sense when you understand modern city design as a form of mostly unconscious but purposeful violence, that pretty much defines the middle class Boomer generation in wealthy rich countries. Structural violence… as far as the eye can see!
  US Boomers love that shit, the prison system, healthcare, highway design, the tax filing system the list just goes on and on.
  I really wish my parents generation could have just been skipped and instead I had parents from the previous generation who actually fought for something and understood how to defend workers rights.
Yeah, what about my property values?? Will someone think of my property valuessss 😭😭😭
"People don't want to give up their freedom"
The older generation

I love living car free with my needs in walking/biking distance. However I feel like the car centric problem runs deeper than basic groceries and transit to work. I live near the gorgeous rocky mountains, but our buses only really run to the ski slopes, and only in winter. It's a true shame to be so close to nature and have my option for access restricted to a rental car. So naturally there's a plan to build the worlds largest gondola directly to resorts to address traffic. Cause god forbid we just ran more effective bus service year round.

Gondolas are probably a lot more efficient than busses though, I'd have thought.
- But they will not stop at any trailheads, just the resorts. Additionally it is unnecessarily expensive to build and ride. Also the additional environmental impact of building and maintaining it rather than using existing roads. It's purely being built for convenience to reduce traffic in/out of the canyon.
Gondolas can actually work as public transit. Depending on terrain they are actually a very efficient solution. You can find them in a few cities.

Is there a FAQ about living in car free cities? For example, how do you travel to another city? What do you do if the city has high slopes making walking and biking too hard? Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?

how do you travel to another city?
Usually by bus or train.
What do you do if the city has high slopes making walking and biking too hard?
Walking is good for you, biking is not too popular in cities with slopes, but electic bikes are changing that.
Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?
There is definitely less mobility, but that is part of getting older isn't it? Usually they just walk a bit slower and use busses and taxies.
- Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?
  Electric mobility scooters as well. I'm sure those are capable of much better range now, and it should keep getting better, and everything they need would ideally be close by
- Wouldn't the elderly be a huge benefiter of a car free city? You get old enough or frail enough that you can't drive. Then what?
  I like in a city that provides free busses and trains to those aged 65+ if they ride in off peak hours, and it's heavily used. This is in a city designed around cars.
Also "car free" doesn't have to mean literally zero cars allowed, but just build and layout the city so you never have to use one for daily errands.
I live next to a grocery store and it's literally the best thing ever, grocery trips take 10 minutes max, I only end up using the car on weekends for hobbies or to visit family and friends.
- From what I've seen from Not Just Bikes, there's also car-sharing. There are services to make it super easy to borrow a car for as little as a few hours if you just need to lug some furniture or something.
- "Car-free cities" gave the wrong idea. I'd call them walk-friendly cities instead, but I guess that ship has already sailed. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and first-hand experience.
- I live in suburbia and the grocery store on the edge of my neighborhood is accessible via a dirt desire path. This beats so many of my friends neighborhoods, but these numbskulls couldn't pour the 20 feet of sidewalk to connect the commercial to the residential, even though the sidewalk has a 2 foot long spur where it should be. 100% car brained.
  Still, running to the store on my bike is just as fast as driving, if not a few mins faster.
For example, how do you travel to another city?
Train or car. Car free mostly refers to inner city trips, for special occasions it's totally fine to use a car (e.g. moving, buying something big, a weekend trip, etc)
What do you do if the city has high slopes making walking and biking too hard?
Bus, ebikes, other types of electric assist stuff, walking. Crazy steep slopes do put a limit on exclusively human powered mobility (i.e. walking and cycling), but those places are incredibly rare.
Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?
A walkable city features amenities close by, plenty of benches to rest, and a solid bus system. There are absolutely no issues for people with restricted mobility. This applies to people with disabilities as well btw.
In fact I would turn that question around: how do elders deal with the requirement to drive a car to get groceries, etc? Isn't that like super duper dangerous?
- Thank you for your detailed reply. I was under the impression that cars and buses were out of the question. This clarifies a lot. Ebikes and electric devices, however, sound to me like something futuristic, probably because I live in latinamerica.
  Steep-slope places are not the norm almost anywhere, but they are not really that scarce here. We probably would need to make some technological catch up.
  About elders driving, well, it's common that they have cars although they can't/shouldn't drive them. Some younger ones can step in and volunteer, usually family members, but not only. An arrangement can always be made when young people hardly owns a car.
- how do elders deal with the requirement to drive a car to get groceries, etc? Isn’t that like super duper dangerous?
  Judging by some folks I've seen driving around with oxygen tubes in their noses: They just drive. And, yes, it is dangerous.
Trains.
Cool stuff
PEVs
- It's cool and all, but trains have fixed routes that can't take you almost everywhere. Of course I'd prefer trains over highways, just stating the current fact. Take for example every city I've lived in Mexico: trains never were an option to travel between cities. That's changing, fortunately.
  PEVs are still not very common around here, but that answers some questions. Thanks for your reply.
Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?
Currently they alll use little electric mobility scooters, in cycle lanes when available, bacause its too dangerous to be any where there are cars here in Australia.
How do those with epilepsy get around, they can't drive at least they can't here in Australia. One lady with epilepsy I knew rode a little electric scoot, she loved having her independence.
What happens to people when they loose thier license in the US ?
- I couldn't tell. Barely know the US and it's been a long time. Those were questions over the top of my head, out of curiosity, and coming from the wrong assumption that these cities were totally car-free with the only exception of emergency vehicles.
how do you travel to another city
Car co-ops is one way.
I have a car, but I'm also in one as it gives me access to different vehicle types that I sometimes need.
To get some places here I also need to take a ferry, and walking on and renting a car on the other end can be situationally cheaper.
What do you do if the city has high slopes making walking and biking too hard?
E-bikes and regular bikes with good gearing. And walking up slopes generally isn't too challenging it's just slow. Infrastructure can help here too by making sure there are paths that don't go up hills unnecessarily. Fast and frequent public transport provides another option where walking and biking is less viable.
For example, how do you travel to another city?
Trains and buses. Car as a last resort (preferably one that is hired rather than owned, and preferably electric rather than an ICE).
Or how do elders deal with what other citizens would take for granted in terms of mobility?
Elderly people can't (or shouldn't) drive either so better walkability = better for the elderly since it gives options to get around without relying on a car. Good infrastructure design can help with disability access, and many disabled people can't drive anyway.

Show me a car free neighborhood and I'll show you insane real estate prices due to demand.

Then people will point to those prices as proof it's a "failure" then spend 2-3x what they "save" on housing on auto loans/expenses.

I don't hate the idea. I want a car free city.

I don’t think a car-free city actually exists. The article mentions Copenhagen:
“[London] has avoided the kind of outright car bans seen elsewhere in Europe, such as in Copenhagen”
I’ve been to Copenhagen. There are cars throughout the city. There are some cycle-only paths that connect to intersections with cars. I cycled along side cars all over the city. Apparently Wired is calling car-reduced cities and cities with small car-free regions a “car-free city”.
Exceptionally, Brussels is a car-free city but for only one day out of the year. And car-free day falls on a Sunday. On that day it becomes illegal to drive a car in the city center without a special pass after showing you have good reason to use a car on that day. But even on that day, the outer region of Brussels is unaffected.
- I live in Copenhagen and only own a bike. The amount of cars and their size has risen drastically the last 10 years, it sucks. Almost nowhere in the city is actually car-free, but there are bike paths almost everywhere which is nice.
- Not fully, but close enough cities exist: https://blog.dormakaba.com/pedestrian-paradises-top-4-car-free-urban-areas-in-the-world/

I dream of the day I can bike safely to my places. Right now I basically have the supermarket and two bars in distance, and then it's a mess of double lane roads and highway ramps before I get to any bike friendly paths to go further afield. It really sucks.

Send an email to your local council. Attach photos, explain what could solve your horrible situation. Nothing will probably happen, but if many people start asking those things officially, in the long run it may help.

Don't know about other Americans, but I would love to be able to have this kind of lifestyle. It's just not realistic over here due to the infrastructure. It's not within my power to make the changes necessary for it though.

It can start by advocating for new pedestrian areas in your city or town, maybe it's only a block, but it's a start

It's crazy to see how the city centre of Ghent (Belgium) changed when they banned non-emergency cars from people not living/working in the centre. It went from some huge carparks with a few people walking between them to large squares filled with people enjoying the city and people who live here.

Every day I bike besides the Coupure channel to the train station and in the city I work in, I walk to the office besides the Dender river. Good infrastructure is basically keeping my mental health afloat.

I don't live in a car-free city, but I wish I would. Fuck cars and especially fuck the people in them. I live in a pedestrian zone, but connected to the main artery through the city. You would think that labeling something as a pedestrian zone would reduce the amount of cars going through, but no, it's just a second main street. Might as well take down the ped zone sign, it gets ignored anyway, so why waste money making one?

When we have a pedestrian zone here, there are bollards at each end. It tends to discourage most cars.

I wouldn’t mind being able to give up my car and truck. But since I’m out in rural parts. It wouldn’t workout too well when it came to other needs.

I lived in rural places without a car. This is an American problem because of policy not because you are rural.
- I have trailers I use haul firewood and such. I burn about 3 quarts a year.

My 2 cents: Living in a climate that gets all the seasons, a car makes things much easier in the winter for numerous reasons. Also, as someone that lives with chronic pain issues, walking or biking places on a daily is quite difficult for me, again, having a car resolves this.

Good quality public transit can solve those issues as well. We should have a variety of options available for a variety of people who need them.
Ah yes, winter! I live in a wintery place (Quebec) and cars in winter need very much care to work properly. They need plowed and salted streets or they get stuck or can't go uphill. If that level of care was the same for pedestrians and cyclists, it would be much easier to move around without a car.
Also, you may need a car because of chronic pain but surely not everyone driving a car needs one for chronic pain? And wouldn't it be nicer for people that really need a car if there were fewer cars around?
I'm in my early 40ies and lived all those winters without a car and I still think it's silly to say they are "adapted" or "working well" in winter. Every winter there are multi car collisions/pile-ups on highways. They slip and slide easily. Multiple times in a year cars can't climb the little hill in front of my place. It takes even more space to park them as there are snowbanks everywhere. Sometimes they get covered in ice.
I really can't see the appeal of a car in winter.
I understand you may not have lived carefree but here's two places with extreme weather that do fine without cars (provided people invest the minimum amount to establish public transport):
Winter (Norway, way below freezing): https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU
Summer (Taiwan, 36C+): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dBk7lq8o1Y
I think the term "car free" is a misnomer, more like "car as a non primary form of transport for most people most of the time" is more accurate but doesn't roll off the tongue as well.
There are a lot of people with mobility issues in such cities that are serviced in different ways, a lot of times with specially licensed cars etc.
- I like the term multi-modal. Everybody should have access to all kind of modes of transportation. And you can pick the best fit depending on your task.
  Going to the dentist? Bike. Getting bread at the bakery? Walk. Commuting? Train. Heavy stuff to get to your parents' house? Carsharing. And so on.
Yeah, I hate the term "car-free". That said, even for someone who primarily uses a car, advocating for bike lanes and public transit makes sense, as the fewer people there are taking up road space and parking, the easier it is for you to drive / park.
Yeah, it gets to 48C in the summer here and biking or walking is not a preferred option unless showering at workplaces becomes a new norm

I lived across the street from a department store, a grocery, some pizza places, a "smoke" shop, video game stores, and everything else I could want on a normal day. It was amazing. I walked everywhere except to work. I miss living there. The main downside was that it was in Florida.

St Augustine?
- Nah, it was Orlando, but not the city proper, more like one of the smaller areas around the actual city. Trying not to give too much away, but it was near Altamonte Springs.

Article is paywalled after the first paragraph. Can anyone post the text ?

I'm almost there.. The area I live in basically all my needs are within 3 miles

Bullshit. I wanted and haven't found one.

I've already warmed up to the idea that we'd have to force positives changes through in the dead of night. With all things said and done, watch those who'd rail against it say they've always been in favor of it.

Totalled my car three years ago. Never bothered buying a new one. I save a lot of money and accepting my faith when relying on public transport has given me so much mental freedom. I take the train to work and the last part of the route is by shared bikes. Love it.

Really good article. Someone was kind enough to post the contents in the comments since the article is paywalled- its worth the read :)

We don't just want "car-free cities" for the sake of it... We want walkable cities with infrastructure and proximity to needs/wants built with pedestrians in mind

I wanna live in one 😭

Taking suggestions on cities lol!

Cool article but Wired already published this 2 years ago. Wonder why they're repubbing?

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/car-free-cities-opposition

It is like the U.S. Wired catching up to the idea years later?

To answer your question on why people are hesitant: they’re not worried about the cities per se, but about the mentality that will then turn its attention to the suburbs and rural areas. There are people who don’t want to live 10mins away from grocery stores because they don’t like grocery shops, or other crowdy places with people milling about. Some of us want to be hermits and live relatively secluded

All that said, I like car free cities. I don’t want denser suburbs tho

I don't want suburbs at all and public policy should make suburbs unaffordable.
- Why don’t you want suburbs? Or I guess, the question is why don’t you want other people to have them?
- HOAs are part of an archaic culture now, at least where I live
  City hermit is not my style, but I get what you’re describing. Population density and activity levels are the main issues
  I feel like there’s nothing wrong with people having options of where to live depending on their style and personality 😁

Meh, I've spent time in walkable cities. Months of renting small apartments in the EU on a work trip.I still prefer cars.

I didn't think you're going to convince these people.

We don't have to convince them to give up their own cars; we just have to stop catering to them by providing so much subsidized road and parking space.
- Which means voting and convincing people.
Yeah you're right, who likes no pollution, no noise, strong communities and third places to bond with people, kids having public spaces to play in their neighborhoods, green, sustainability, healthy, active people that don't sit in front of a wheel all day long... Who likes all that seriously?
- I get privacy, AC, and I get to go shopping once every two weeks instead of smaller trips every day, and I still live in a small neighborhood with a lovely park within walking distance.
  I'm fucking crazy right?!!!!!
It's awesome you didn't provide a single example about why you prefer unwalkable cities
- I didn't find it easier. I didn't like summer commutes and being hot. I didn't like dealing with other people on public transportation. I prefer my 10 minute drive to my local store in AC with my music in my quite car.