Nowadays, it is difficult to imagine life without everyday crowds, traffic lights, long columns with no end in sight, loud sirens echoing through the streets. In a word, it is hard to imagine life without a car.
On the one hand, cars make everyday life easier. Thanks to them, many activities such as going to work, shopping for groceries from the store, traveling, have become easier and faster.
But if we look at the other side of the coin, they are one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world.
According to research, transport is responsible for almost 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union, of which as much as 72 percent comes from road traffic.
More and more cities are introducing measures that limit car traffic
The importance of cars in everyday life is huge, but remember how you felt last time you were in a motionless crowd, in an endless column of cars. You were probably angry, nervous, maybe even sad because you are late for an event that is important to you.
Research has shown that in Los Angeles, drivers spend 119 hours a year stuck in traffic. In Moscow, this number is even higher, and drivers are stuck in traffic jams for as much as 210 hours a year, and if we turned this number into days, it would be an incredible 9 days during the year spent in your car waiting in a traffic jam.
These, as well as numerous other negative data, led the authorities of some cities in the world to completely close some parts of the cities to cars. In those cities, the streets are being redesigned to shift the priority from traffic to other purposes, such as parks.
Amsterdam, already known for moving less often by car than by bicycle or on foot, plans to introduce additional measures to reduce the number of cars - by 2025 it is planned to remove as many as 11,200 parking spaces to widen sidewalks and bike paths and planted trees.
The situation in Paris is also interesting, where every first week of the month, the heart of the city, ie the streets of the first, second, third and fourth arrondissement, are closed to traffic and serve as pedestrian zones. Similar measures have been taken in Birmingham, Brussels, Helsinki, Oslo, but also in many other cities, not only in Europe but all over the world.
What are the benefits?
Primarily, if cars were banned in certain parts of the cities, more places for walking and parks would be created, sidewalks would be widened or entire pedestrian zones would be created. The problem is not only the cars as such, but also the entire infrastructure that is subordinated to them.
Thus, in the United States, there are twice as many parking spaces as there are cars. If some of the parking lots were removed, a space would be obtained that could be redesigned and otherwise used by the population. Another positive thing that a car ban would bring is that it wouldn't be so crowded. A good example is Barcelona, where one settlement known for its constant crowds was transformed in 2016, so the space occupied by vehicles is now intended for pedestrians, cyclists and neighbors who want to spend time together outside.
However, if the way to prevent such traffic jams and other problems would be to ban cars in certain urban areas, that would not mean that traffic would stop completely. Redesigning the urban landscape in this way would actually mean a significant improvement of the public transport network, which would allow people to move from one end of the city to another by bus, tram or subway, while improving the infrastructure that allows the use of other means of transport such as bicycles or electric scooters.
Would a car ban have an impact on climate change?
Greenhouse gas emissions from transport mainly come from the burning of fossil fuels for cars, trucks, ships, trains and airplanes. It is even over 90% of the fuel used for oil-based transportation, which primarily refers to gasoline and diesel.
At the beginning of this year, when the state of emergency and quarantine measures were introduced, we had the opportunity to see fewer cars on the streets, but also to use this vehicle less ourselves. During that period, in fact, daily greenhouse gas emissions decreased by as much as 17 percent, according to a study by the University of East Anglia.
Guided by this recent example, we can conclude that if the use of transport cars is reduced in the future, we can expect a reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions, given that vehicles are one of the largest emitters of these gases in the world. .
In addition to reducing emissions, such redesign of traffic and urban landscape would also reduce the impact of urban heat islands, ie. it would change the microclimate of the city, which is a desirable measure of adaptation to climate change in order to mitigate the effects of heating and heat waves.
If we look at what the central streets of Belgrade look like during the afternoon rush hour, we will notice a crowded and gloomy, noisy and polluted picture that takes away both people's time and nerves. Can you imagine that instead of four car lanes and a parking lot, there are two-way bicycle paths, another tree-lined avenue and benches, and that public transport vehicles can pass unhindered through lanes intended only for them? Today, it is difficult to imagine such a situation, but if more and more cities follow the bright examples we have written about here, maybe in the future we will live in places that are more tailored to man and less tailored to cars.
da da zamisli kako bi bilo fino da imamo konje i kočije.