Urbanized Cities All Over The World Have Started Taking Cars Off Their Streets And Changing The Way People View Their Communities

Source: https://inhabitat.com/

Cities around the world such as Bogota, Melbourne and Cape Town have been slowly taking cars off their streets and joining the Open Streets Movement. 

For almost 100 years, cars have revolutionized how people travel in a personal and convenient way to and from everyone’s destination. A city’s urban developmental planning has been designed to accommodate cars and the others which existed before the invention of cars have completely reshaped their road network to allow its convenience. 

Owning a car has allowed people to live in neighborhoods outside the city center in a more relaxed setting that has resulted in residential developments in sprawling areas such as US suburbia. 


Source: https://www.ucsusa.org/

With all the positive effects cars have given its users, the pollution they emit also possesses a negative threat to people’s health and environment. 

There are over a billion cars in the world that use up energy, contribute C02 emissions which reduces air quality. Cars are also the reason of increased obesity and chronic illnesses, as well as killing more than 1.25 million every year from traffic accidents. 

Because of this, cities are taking steps to reduce car usage in order to benefit the residents in these urbanized areas and its environment, such as taking cars off the streets so that people can walk, cycle, and enjoy the fresh air as a community. 


Source: http://cdn.shopify.com/

Car-free zones, whether for just one day a week or permanently, have been increasing in cities around the world such as Copenhagen and Brussels. In Madrid, there is a law that cars that are not owned by residents within the city are not allowed to enter downtown. Ghent, in Belgium is an entirely car-free zone. Bogota started having car-free days in 1976, and now opens 120km of streets to just the people every Sunday, with 200 more following their example. 

Many cities use up this freed-up space on Sundays for art and culture, sporting events, or even just having children play and skate along the streets. This has been encouraging people to change the way they view the community and enjoy the public spaces without the constant smell of fumes and pollution. 

Urban areas have now begun to think out-of-the-box and prioritize people over cars for more liveable areas. There are even some new residential areas that have been designed completely free of the use of private transportation with a bigger investment towards public transit. 

Would you like your city to be car-free?

 

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