Car Free Cities :: Do Such Mythical Places Exist?
Indeed, there are few people alive today that can probably remember what it was like to live in a word without the constant hum, screech, and zoom of automobiles. We’ve come as accostomed to their noise as we have to jets in the sky, emails from family, and “Dirty Dancing” on TBS at 2am–every night. Seriously. My wife loves that movie. It drives me crazy.
But, yes, we live in a motor world and there’s something shocking about suddenly finding yourself walking down a street that’s been blocked off to traffic. It feels somewhat liberating–like you’ve entered a ghost town. It’s even quiet. Wouldn’t it be cool to travel to cities where that’s the norm? Do such places even exist? Perhaps you’ve been to one or two. Well, the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has a very long list of many carefree cities throughout the world. According to their requirements, they must be: unusual for their country or region and/or make up a sizeable fraction of a city, town, or island. For instance, the city of Hydra Island off the coast of Greece, is completely car-free. I hear the cheese is also fantastic.
Anyways, sooner or later the human race is going to have to deal with the problem of cars. They use a great deal of precious resources, are pretty inefficient, and cause too much congestion, pollution, etc. Cities will have to learn how to adapt with greater public transportation and layout improvements. A book by J.H. Crawford tackles this problem head-on with “historical and contemporary references to guiding historic precedents and ideological errors of 20th-century planning. the author sets up the carfree city as the cornerstone of sustainable development. He outlines a structure carefully designed to maximize the quality of life for people and communities worldwide.”
The reviews are pretty much glowing. One such highlight, “Mr. Crawford has done us all a great service by crafting a wonderfully readable book that beautifully blends vision and practicality. The reference model for Carfree Cities proposed in this meticulously considered work could quite possibly be the blueprint for reviving not only the art of building but the art of living itself.” Wow. Makes me feel guilty for having missed this on my ‘Must Read’ list. Interested in finding out more? Head on over to the accompanying website or visit MetaEfficient for a more detailed review.
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