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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Boston To Ban Cars In Downtown

There were some big announcements at last nights 6th Annual Boston Bikes update.  I was impressed with the growth in the bike lane network, and the expansion of the bike share.  But what really floored me was the surprise appearance by Marty Walsh himself announcing that Boston would follow the lead of cities like Paris, and ban all motor traffic (except cabs and delivery trucks) in the down town region.  Siting reasons from lack of space for parking, to old fashion road layouts, and the looming threat of global warming to a city at sea level, the Mayor made a very strong argument for banning cars from the downtown metro area.

We are one of the top ranked  accessible cities in North America for public transportation, and yet we have one of the least conducive road systems for cars.    At the same time we are wasting potential billions in economic potential by devoting a majority of space downtown to car infrastructure.  As if that wasn’t enough, our great city is only feet above a sea that is rising year after year due to the disastrous effects of global warming.  Mayor Menino famously said ‘the car is no longer king in Boston’ well my friends I am here to tell you, the king is dead.  We will no longer waste hundreds of millions of dollars supporting a technology that is killing us, wasting our money, and destroying the future for our children.

At which point I have to tell you the room went a little nuts. After people calmed down Walsh went on to detail a sensible plan of restrictions on car travel in the down town area. Starting with a congestion charge of 75$ a day to drive into the city. At the same time parking will be raised to 20$ an hour, and most on street parking will be eliminated in favor of wider sidewalks, bike lanes, dedicated bus/cab lanes, and green space.

The money raised will go to improvements in the T and bus infrastructure. There will still be access for people with disabilities who rely on cars for travel, including better placement of handicap parking spaces closer to entrances to buildings, and better curb treatment for people in wheel chairs, and pedestrians.

Walsh also detailed plans to return many of the side streets to “people powered” boulevards, where only pedestrians and cyclists are allowed. He showed images of the popular people only areas that NYC has recently installed.

Special delivery depots will be developed for centralized delivery of goods to businesses, and electrically assisted delivery bikes will be hired to take items to their final destination.

It was a real tour-de-force of fact based planning. Citing study after study that showed that cars were dangerous, bad for the economy, and bad for the people driving them, and directly leading to the death of dozens of people every year. He went on to say:

As April approaches you would have to be a fool to continue to believe that we can continue with business as usual and avert the catastrophic results of relying on internal combustion fueled automobiles. We must change to a human based model of planning, for our own health, for the health of our economy, and for the health of our planet. As such I plan to remove cars from our downtown, replace them with vibrant public transportation, bike lanes, better walking infrastructure, and to reclaim the wasted space dedicated to cars to fuel economic development. Thank you.

Copenhagen’s Car-free streets & Slow-speed zones from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

The crowd was on their feet, cheering. I stuck around after trying to get to talk to Mayor Walsh, but he had ducked out surrounded by cyclists wanting to shake his hand. It was a good night, and I left feeling hopeful about the future.

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