Can you imagine what your city would look like without cars? I’m sitting in St. Louis – it would be pretty difficult to envision without some effort.
But the people of Hamburg, Germany are going one step further: they are putting together a strategy and taking action.
Hamburg City Council has disclosed ambitious plans to divert most cars away from its main thoroughfares in twenty years. In order to do so, local authorities are to connect pedestrian and cycle lanes in what is expected to become a large green network. In all, the Grünes Netz (Green Web) plan envisages “eliminating the need for automoviles” within two decades.
Wording here is key. The challenge is not simply to outlaw the car – we could do that today, and it would result in economic disaster. A positive outcome depends on removing the need for automobiles, providing alternative city designs that make prosperity possible without the current, dysfunctional infrastructure around those heavy individual buttock-transport devices.