1. Context

2. Urban design

3. Advocacy groups

4. Activism groups

5. Official events

6. Carfree development
    Definitions and types  Vauban  Limited access type  Pedestrian zones   Benefits and problems  

7. Places

8. See also

9. References

10. Further reading

The car-free movement is a broad, informal, emergent network of individuals and organizations including social activists, urban planners, transportation engineers and others, brought together by a shared belief that large and/or high-speed motorized vehicles (cars, trucks, tractor units, motorcycles, ...)^[1] are too dominant in most modern cities. The goal of the movement is to create places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated, to convert road and parking space to other public uses and to rebuild compact urban environments where most destinations are within easy reach by other means, including walking, cycling, personal transporters, low impact vehicles such as golf carts, neighborhood electric vehicles, kei cars and quadricycles, mobility as a service or public transport.^[2]

Context

Before the twentieth century, cities and towns were normally compact, containing narrow streets busy with human activity. In the early twentieth century, many of these settlements were adapted to accommodate the car with wider roads, more car parking spaces, and lower population densities with space between urban buildings reserved for automotive use.^[2] Lower population densities meant urban sprawl with longer distances between places. The low cost of use brought traffic congestion which made older transport unattractive or impractical, and created the conditions for more traffic and sprawl; the car system was "increasingly able to 'drive' out competitors, such as feet, bikes, buses and trains".^[3] This process led to changes in urban form and living patterns that offered little opportunity for people without a car.^[4]

Some governments have responded with policies and regulations aimed at reversing auto dependency by increasing urban densities, encouraging mixed use development and infill, reducing space allocated to private cars, increasing walkability, supporting cycling and other alternative vehicles similar in size and speed, and public transport.^[5] Globally cities are planning to increase their public transport and non-motorized transport modal shares and shift away from private transport oriented development. Cities like Hong Kong developed a highly integrated public transportation system which effectively reduced the use of private transport.^[6] In contrast with private automotive travel, car sharing, where people can easily rent a car for a few hours rather than own one, is emerging as an increasingly important element for urban transportation.^[7]

Urban design

Proponents of the car-free movement focus on both sustainable transportation options and on urban design, zoning, school placement policies, urban agriculture, telecommuting options, and housing developments that create proximity or access so that long distance transportation becomes less of a requirement of daily life.

New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. Its goal has been to reform all aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable.^[8] Other, more auto-oriented cities are also making incremental changes to provide transportation alternatives through Complete streets improvements.

World Squares for all is a scheme to remove much of the traffic from major squares in London, including Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.^[9]

Car-free cities are, as the name implies entire cities (or at least the inner parts therof) which have been made entirely car-free.

Distribution centers help reduce the need to keep buildings such as warehouses in city centers accessible by Tractor units. They allow the tractor units to unload their cargo in the suburban distribution center. The products are then placed in a small truck (sometimes electrically powered^[12]), freight bicycle, ... to bridge the last mile (transportation) to the warehouse. Besides offering advantages to the population (increased safety due to truck drivers having less blind spots), reduced noise/traffic, reduced tailpipe emissions, ...) it also offers financial advantage for the companies, as tractor units require a lot of time to bridge this last mile (they lack agility and consume much fuel in congested streets).

At the outskirts of towns, between the exits of the rings roads, and the car-free zones in the city center themselves, additional car parking lots can be added, generally in the form of underground car parks (to avoid it taking up surface space).^[13] Careful placement of these car-parking lots is needed though, ensuring that they are made far enough from the city centers (and closer to the ring roads) to avoid them attracting more cars to the city center. In some instances, near these car parking lotss, public transport (i.e. bus) stops are foreseen, or bicycle-sharing services are present.{{Citation needed|date=June 2015}}

Advocacy groups

The Campaign for Better Transport (formerly known as Transport2000) was formed in 1972 in Britain to challenge proposed cuts in the British rail network and since then has promoted public transport solutions to our transport needs.^[16]

Activism groups

In Flanders, the organisation Fietsersbond has called upon the government to ban tractor units in city centers.^[20][21]

The World Naked Bike Ride was born in 2001 in Spain with the first naked bike rides, which then emerged as the WNBR in 2004 a concept which rapidly spread through collaborations with many different activist groups and individuals around the world to promote bicycle transportation, renewable energy, recreation, walkable communities, and environmentally responsible, sustainable solutions to living in the twenty-first century.^[23]

Parking Days started in 2005 when REBAR, a collaborative group of creators, designers and activists based in San Francisco, transformed a metered parking spot into a small park complete with turf, seating, and shade^[24] and by 2007 there were 180 parks in 27 cities around the world.^[25]

Official events

Ciclovía is a similar event in many cities that places a large emphasis on cycling as an alternative to auto travel.

Towards Carfree Cities is the annual conference of the World Carfree Network and provides a focal point for diverse aspects of the emerging global carfree movement. The conference is in Portland, Oregon, USA in 2008 (its first time in North America), and has also been in Istanbul, Turkey; Bogota, Colombia; Budapest, Hungary; Berlin, Germany; Prague, Czech Republic; Timisoara, Romania; and Lyon, France. The conference series attempts to bridge the gap between many of the diverse people and organizations interested in reducing urban dependence on the automobile.

Transportation Alternative's Annual Commuter Race pits a bicyclist against both a subway rider and a cab rider in a race from Queens to Manhattan. The Fifth Annual Commuter race took place in May 2009, where bicyclist Rachel Myers beat straphanger Dan Hendrick and cab rider Willie Thompson to make it the fifth year the contestant on the bicycle won. Myers took the 2009 title with a time of 20 minutes and 15 seconds to make the 4.2 mile trek from Sunnyside, Queens to Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Hendrick showed up 15 minutes later off the subway and Thompson arrived via cab nearly a half-hour after that. Transportation Alternatives is a group that "seeks to change New York City's transportation priorities to encourage and increase non-polluting, quiet, city-friendly travel and decrease—not ban—private car use. [They] seek a rational transportation system based on a 'Green Transportation Hierarchy,' which gives preference to modes of travel based on their benefits and costs to society. To achieve our goals, T.A. works in five areas: Bicycling, Walking and Traffic Calming, Car-Free Parks, Safe Streets and Sensible Transportation." The 2009 Commuter Race came on the heels of a Times Square traffic ban in NYC that drew national media attention.^[29]

Carfree development

Definitions and types

There are many areas of the world where people have always lived without cars, because no road access is possible, or none has been provided. In developed countries these include islands and some historic neighbourhoods or settlements, the largest example being the canal city of Venice. The term carfree development implies a physical change - either new building or changes to an existing built area.

Melia et al. (2010)^[30] define carfree development as follows:

Carfree developments are residential or mixed use developments which:

• Normally provide a traffic free immediate environment, and:
• Offer no parking or limited parking separated from the residence, and:
• Are designed to enable residents to live without owning a car.

This definition (which they distinguish from the more common "low car development") is based mainly on experience in Northwestern Europe, where the movement for carfree development began. Within this definition three types are identified:

• Vauban model
• Limited Access model
• Pedestrian zones with residential population

Vauban

Limited access type

The more common form of car free development involves some sort of physical barrier, which prevents motor vehicles from penetrating into a carfree interior. Melia et al.^[30] describe this as the "Limited Access" type. In some cases such as Stellwerk 60 in Cologne, there is a removable barrier, controlled by a residents' organisations. In others such as Waterwijk (Amsterdam) (article in Dutch) vehicular access is only available from the exterior.

Pedestrian zones

Whereas the first two models apply to newly built car free developments, most pedestrianised areas have been retro-fitted. Pedestrian zones may be considered carfree developments where they include a significant population and a low rate of vehicle ownership per household. The largest example in Europe is Groningen, Netherlands which had a city centre population of 16,500 in 2008.^[31]

Benefits and problems

Several studies have been done on European car free developments. The most comprehensive was conducted in 2000 by Jan Scheurer.^[32] Other more recent studies have been made of specific carfree areas such as Vienna's Florisdorf carfree development.^[33]

The main benefits found for car free developments (summarised in Melia et al. 2010^[30]) found in the various studies are:

• very low levels of car use, resulting in much less traffic on surrounding roads
• high rates of walking and cycling
• more independent movement and active play amongst children
• less land taken for parking and roads - more available for green or social space

The main problems related to parking management. Where parking is not controlled in the surrounding area, this often results in complaints from neighbours about overspill parking.

Places

See also

• Alternatives to car use
• Automobile dependency
• Car costs
• Car-Free Days
• Effects of the car on societies
• Jan Gehl
• List of car-free places
  • Carfree city
• Peak car
• Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
• Spatial mismatch

References

Further reading

• Katie Alvord, Divorce your Car! Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile, New Society Publishers (2000), {{ISBN|0-86571-408-8}}
• Crawford, J. H., Carfree Cities, International Books (2000), {{ISBN|978-90-5727-037-6}}
• Crawford, J. H., Carfree Design Manual, (2009), {{ISBN|978-90-5727-060-4}}
• Zack Furness One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility, Temple University Press (2010), {{ISBN|978-1-59213-613-1}}
• Elisabeth Rosenthal, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/science/earth/12suburb.html "In German Suburb, Life Goes on Without Car,"] New York Times, May 11, 2009.
• Lynn Sloman, Car Sick: Solutions for Our Car-addicted Culture, Green Books (2006), {{ISBN|978-1-903998-76-2}}
• Martin Wagner, The Little Driver, Pinter & Martin (2003), {{ISBN|978-0-9530964-5-9}}

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