The Car Century Was A Mistake, Time To Fix That Mistake

Great story from the Washington Post today.

“We must first remember that all cities were car-free little more than a century ago. Not all cities responded to the advent of automobiles with the same enthusiasm as the cities of the United States. In fact, some cities never did adopt the car. Venice was unwilling to destroy itself in order to build streets wide enough for cars, and therefore has never had them except in a sliver near the mainland. The same situation exists in the Medina of Fez, Morocco, and several other North African cities. These districts are usually the most vibrant parts of their cities.”

Read the rest here.

Boston could go car free, instead we spent decades and billions destroying and then rebuilding the city over and over to accommodate the automobile. It cost us thousands of lives, and billions of dollars, we have basically done nothing to help people get around the town better. Traffic is still a daily part of life here in a city that was never designed for cars.

If instead of building highways, and then tearing them down and putting them in a big hole, we could have spent all those billions of dollars on better public transport, more biking and walking infrastructure, and lets be honest, a sea wall system to keep Boston dry in the global warming induced sea level we are bound to see over the next 50 years.

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