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…while some cities with world-class public transport are debating how to tackle the stubborn minority of journeys still made by car, others – particularly in the US – have become so dependent on driving that opting out is almost impossible.
From connecting commuter suburbs to persuading royals to use buses, here are four expert-backed ways for tackling car culture.
- Expand and improve public transport
- Share space with pedestrians and cyclists
- Focus on suburbs
- Understand why people drive
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“Most of the time, once people have lived with it, the opposition softens,”
That’s because people, even me, are kind of stupid and unimaginative. They don’t like change for primitive reasons.
Taking public transport is not something that you do because you are poor,” said López-Aparicio. “It is something that you do for the common wealth of the whole society
If only we could get that idea in people’s heads.
If only we could get that idea in people’s heads.
Seems misguided to me. People only do these sort of society-wide prosocial actions when it is within their convenience tolerance. It reminds me of this:
Sure, you occasionally will run into the desperately poor person working 3 jobs who also finds the time to pick up litter in their local park. But most of the time this person has more important things to think about than litter - like getting a job that doesnt require them to work 3. The idea that we need to get people to be more pro-social so they will take the bus feels a lot like the idea that we need to teach people that exercise is healthy so they will cycle more. But the reason people don’t cycle, we know, is because it is inefficient and dangerous, and the reason people don’t take transit is because it is slow and unpleasant. And when cycling or taking transit is faster, cheaper, safer, and more pleasant than driving, people do that.
In general, you need to make the right thing to do easy and the bad thing to do hard.
If taking the bus was fast and free, and driving meant you had to file a request to get a day license and drive no faster than 25mph, people wouldn’t drive so much.
I feel like this article misses the big underlying problems of car dependency, and is mostly directed at dense urban centers which are already reasonably well equipped to ween off car use.
The real issue is reforming car first infrastructure and urban design. The science is clear: you literally cannot transit your way out of an auto-dependent suburb. People’s homes are so spread out that having enough transit lines and stops to cover everyone would be astronomically expensive, and much slower than simply driving.
The solution to reforming the suburbs is twofold.
First is to give people reasonable options for living in less autodependent spaces by allowing and encouraging denser housing development in already walkable areas, and relaxing suburban zoning to allow walkable spaces to develop naturally in these areas.
Second is to, essentially, force people to stop using their cars via economic leverage. Gas taxes, carbon taxes, registration fees, additional infrastructure fees for sprawled suburban homes, no free parking, fees for using highways and fees for exiting highways into dense urban areas, etc. The reality is, cars are extraordinarily convenient, comfortable, and safe, and we will continue having ample roads for them to drive on for the forseeable future.
Expanding public transit is good but making living space affordable near public transit would help a lot. There are many people who would like to live in the dense city core but its to expensive. If everyone who wanted to could live close to the transit hub as possible in dense hi rises it would reduce things a lot. I myself live near the end of the transit lines as a compromise of price vs transit availability. I know folks who live farther out because its way cheaper. You can’t get away from the fact that for most people housing is their highest cost. Basically if you go way out you can still find 1k a bedroom but if you go into the city center you will be at 2k a bedroom. If you lucky and can find a job way downstate in the rural areas and you could be talking 500 bucks a bedroom. Your screwed if you lose that job though.
