Can a city really ban cars from its streets? http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140204-can-a-city-really-go-car-free
I personal don't believe it will be possible to stop using cars in the near future. Even with a span of 20 years I find it unlikely that a big city (Hamburg) will be car less. For several reasons (both personal and no-personal) will make this an impossible (or at least a very hard) goal to have. the first thing that comes to my mind is time and money; how much is it possible to invest in whats basically gonna be rebuilding an either city. The article says that parks, playgrounds, sport fields etc will from networks, I don't know if its means that all will be with in walking distance or if its just going to be easier get around everything by walking. Either way it feels like an extremely amount of money is necessary. Not to criticise anyone but fixing a round can take weeks if not months to fix, how long time will be needed to fix the whole city?The car has and will be among other things a feeling of freedom, Its hard to think that all people simple just gonna give the up. No its more likely that the people will go against this proposal, and I can't really blame them. Image a oversleeping a morning, if you go by bus, use the bike or walk ever day this is the day you will be using the car just to save those precious minutes. Or if your sick and have to go buying groceries? Take the bus doesn't really sound appealing.
Now lets say we have a city with no cars: how will it work out if someone from another city drove here? Can this person drive in the city or will he/she be forced to leave the car at the city limits? If you want to go from the cars less city to anywhere else, are you obligated to take a bus or train?
Will the public transportation be free of charge, or will the price go up/down. I can imagine that the public transport sector has to expand due to more people will depend on it. But it's feels unfair if the bus tickets will cost e.g twice as much if you have no other choices.
To me it feels like this questions will be a factor in the success (or failure) of this project.
Now I know I been negative about the whole thing, trust me as an student with major in energy and environmental I could not be happier if this was every city's plan. The car is one big environmental
problem. Not to say that ride the bike every day to work would be good for most people and so on. Even if more households don't have cars, it will take a long time before the norm will be not having one.
Hopefully I'm wrong and this will be something the world will use as a standard in two decades.
ReplyDeleteLinguistic comments:
First of all, … represents a gap or the sentence continuing and not something of symbolic value. It’s of course up to you wether you agree to my comments or not and you’re free to ask if something is unclear.
“span of 20 years” - span over 20 years
“will make this an impossible” - We’ll make …
“goal to have” - goal to achieve
“whats basically gonna be rebuilding an either city” - What’s basically gonna be rebuilding (or reconstructing) another city
“will from networks, I don't know if its means that all will be with in walking distance or if its just going to be easier get around everything by walking” - Will be connected through network, I don't know if it means that everything will be within walking distance or if it’s just going to be easier to move in the city by walking
“feels like an extremely amount” - Change extremely to extreme, extremely is an adverb
“ Its hard to think that all people simple just gonna give the up” - It’s hard to think that all people will simply just give the up
“No its more” - It’s more…
“Image a oversleeping a morning, if you go by bus, use the bike or walk ever day this is the day you will be using the car just to save those precious minutes.” - Image oversleeping, if you go by bus, use the bike or walk every day, this is the day you will be using the car just to save some precious minutes
“Or if your sick” - You’re
“Take the bus” - Taking the bus…
“Now lets say” - let’s
“ he/she” - Replace with they
“If you want to go from the cars less city to anywhere else, are you obligated to take a bus or train?” - If you want to go from the car less city to anywhere else, are you obliged to take a bus or train?
“ public transportation” - Public transport, transportation is a verb
“due to more people will depend on it” - Since more people will depend on it OR due to the fact that more people will depend on it
“But it's feels unfair if the bus tickets will cost e.g twice as much if you have no other choices.” - Change it’s to it and choices to choice
“To me” - According to me
“will be a factor in the success (or failure) of this project” - will be a factor of success (or failure) in the project
“ I been negative” - I’ve been negative
“trust me as an student with major in energy and environmental” - a student + with major in the energy and environmental field….
“Not to say that ride the bike every day to work would be good for most people and so on” - I’m not saying that riding the bike every day to work wouldn’t be good for most people….
“not having one.” - not to having one
Personal comments:
As you say, I think you’re a bit negative but changes like this are not simple and a lot of oppositions will be met. Although, I think you’re reflections are good and what you bring up is important to think about since a project like this requires a lot of planning and reconsiderations. Interesting :)
I think your thoughts make sense (Seeing as your text, and my own have many similarities). The future is one full of traffic problems for the major cities in this world.
ReplyDeleteNot doing anything and just accepting the problem will therefore not help create a solution but instead possibly make it worse.
I guess we will need a combination of optimisation of public transport, promotion of alternative use of cars. For instance using cars on odd or even dates like they do in Singapore, Carpooling is also an option or organized minibus transportation to and from the workplace like they have in Istanbul.
In long-term we will need a radically different approach to this challenge, in the short-term we can learn a lot from looking at mega cities in the world today, Because a couple of them already have a system that to some level works quite well!
I don't like complaining about small language mistakes, exspecially because I myself am Dyslexic, but one thing I noticed is that the person who commented before me said that "not having one." should be "not to having one" which is still wrong, because it should actually be "not to HAVE one"... But whatever