It's fair to say that for over a century our towns and cities have been defined by the need to accommodate cars, and then more cars.
This is no exaggeration. Cars consume an astonishing amount of space in cities, the very places where space is most needed (and most expensive). It is almost as if vehicles have come to own the city, with humans trudging behind in a distant second place.
For example, in the United States there are thought to be as many as 2 billion parking spaces, most of them in cities. That is eight times the actual number of cars. And many cities devote huge proportions of their land to roads and parking: it is estimated that in Washington DC, rights of way and off-street parking occupy 44 per cent of the useable land. In Houston, Texas, the figure is nearly 65 per cent.
Even though many US cities were largely built in the age of the car, and were intended to be served by automobiles, it can sometimes appear as if it is humans who are serving the motor car. And in those world cities that grew up in the pre-petrol age, the situation can be even more extreme.
Cars versus people
Take an old and venerable city such as Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Most of its roads were lanes built for pedestrians or the occasional horse-drawn cart. But today the motor car has staged an all-out invasion of the Bengali city, undeterred by the fact that until recently only 6 per cent of Kolkata's land was given over to roads.
In the face of the congestion that inevitably resulted, Kolkata's solution has been to build roads on top of roads. In the past two decades there have been at least nine major flyover projects (including one that recently collapsed during construction). These have cut through the city much to the horror of conservationists appalled at the way these stacked elevated highways are compromising historic buildings, destroying low-rise suburbs, blocking out sunlight and generating pollution.
And if that sounds regressive, how about this: in 2014 the Kolkata local authorities banned cycling on most of the city's major roads, a ban that has generated huge protests but remains in force.
Putting a squeeze on cars
Kolkata may be a leading case study in unsustainable mobility. But in many of the world's cities there is a different direction of travel, as both planners and activists seek a new balance between cars and people. Instead of expanding roads there have been moves to reduce the space allocated to motor traffic and to redirect traffic out of town, where it is more efficient. These days, instead of flyovers being put up, they are more likely to be demolished (as has happened to several in the UK) or turned into something a lot more sustainable, like Manhattan's High Line park and trail (a former rail flyover).
Some commentators point to the Covid-19 pandemic as a trigger for such initiatives, but in fact many of them predate the arrival of coronavirus. For example, in 2019 both Oslo and Madrid announced plans to make their city centres car-free. And back in 2016 San Francisco came up with a detailed “smart city” plan that included repurposing public space given over to under-utilised parking and turning it into parks and affordable housing.
An opportunity to change
A few of these re-imaginings of the future of urban mobility have been radical. A 2016 study, Making Better Places, by two British engineering firms, explored what could happen in London if the promise of completely self-driving cars became a reality. They imagined a city in which all cars are self-driving, where cars themselves could be much narrower and pack themselves into streets more densely – because automated vehicles can drive more closely than human-controlled ones. That means the streets they use could be smaller, with other space given over to parks or walkways, and parking spaces shifted to locations on the outskirts of towns.
There is one big ‘but' in all of this, of course: do city dwellers really want to give up partially their cars, when cars are so much a part of their identity? That may be the biggest question of all – one that comes down to the choices people make in their lives.
And that's where the coronavirus pandemic has given many urban planners the chance to seize the initative and put plans in place while people were out of the cities. As those people return, they will find areas given over to pedestrians, to sitting and relaxing, and to improved cycle lanes. Making the transition to a different way of life all the more tempting.
