Car-less cities are not just the stuff of sci-fi utopia
Pedestrian area in Brussels (Photo by Miguel Discart/Flickr)
By Al Gerard de la Cruz
For several years now in Jakarta – beset by what some view as the “worst traffic in the world” – residents look forward to car-free Sundays along the big boulevards of Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin.
Now it looks like Paris is following suit. The iconic Champs-Elysees went car-less early last month, a move met with enthusiastic response from thousands.
Other cities are doing away with drivers altogether. Later this year, Singapore will be rolling out unmanned public mini-buses – seemingly straight out of futuristic movies – to ferry commuters around key train stops. Baidu founder Robin Li is also envisioning an entire metropolis with cars sans drivers in Wuhu, China.
These concepts are making an important statement for the next industrial revolution and against climate change. Change will not be forthcoming though.
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Disadvantages
When a city goes car-free, the public transit will emerge as the logical alternative, aside from walking outright. Southeast Asia has not been exactly at the cutting edge of public transport, however. Jones Lang LaSalle has highlighted the lack of mass rail transit in Southeast Asian cities besides Singapore.
Critics point out that car-free programmes are susceptible to exploitation by commercial brands. Along with the pedestrians, Indonesian companies have taken to Jakarta’s streets on car-less days to install booths and set up stages for marketing activities, reports The Jakarta Post.
A driverless city takes immense infrastructure investment, anywhere from convoluted intersections to lane markings. On a road with ambiguous markings, a self-driven vehicle could stay put and set itself up for an accident. It may also do the complete opposite, barreling through an intersection where a stoplight has been damaged.
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Advantages
Nothing replaces a human touch when it comes to manning vehicles, but automotive advancements are brimming with possibilities to eliminate the idea of a driver. In 2016, we’ve seen a concept car that can park by itself in a very narrow space.
Speaking of which, car-free days should result in more land for public spaces and residential real estate. To that end, the Singaporean government has levied high taxes on car ownership, making purchases here a true luxury. With its small land area and fast-growing populace, the city-state needs all the real estate it can get over transport infrastructure.
Last but not the least, the benefits of going car-free in the greater context of an ailing biosphere could not be emphasised enough. According to Greenpeace, transport contributes approximately 13 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Two-thirds of these can be traced to road transport.
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Middle of the road
There’s a middle-of-the-road approach to shrinking the world’s carbon footprint, however. Many people are realising that the next greenest alternative to not owning a car is getting an electric one, an idea that has been steadily growing in vogue. The International Energy Agency counted 1.26 million electric cars on the road worldwide in 2015.
Google has been offering a glimpse of their line of unmanned electric vehicles, currently under development. It all looks like a big honk for the environment so far.
What do you think? Sound off in the Comments section below.
Source : property-report.com
Read more…Why you should (and shouldn’t) want a car-free or driver-less city
