When can we see city without cars? In the distant future? How many cities in the world do you know where cars are not used?
When we talk about a city without cars, we can only think of Venice. However, this is not the only city in the world in which you can not move by car. There are places where cars were literally "banned", such as in Mackinac in the US state of Michigan. The use of motor vehicles has been banned here since 1898: you can only travel on foot, by bicycle or by horse-drawn carriage.
Venice, Grand Canal
Venice, a city known all over the world - no car experience. The city is an open-air museum, you can only visit it on foot or by bike. For long trips between the islands, boats are used.
Huron Street, Mackinac Main Street, Michigan, USA
Makino is a haven for clean air lovers, with emergency vehicles such as ambulances and winter snow-clearing vehicles. An exception is the electric vehicle. In the form of public transport - horse carriages, along with bicycles. The Grande area is only 10 square kilometers, with a population of just under 500 people. The purpose of the 1898 Ordinance, which prohibits passenger cars, is to avoid noise and pollution. The law is still in force.
Suede, Valle d'Aosta
Suede, in Val d'Aosta, is the only city in Italy that cannot be reached by car. This small town has just over 100 inhabitants and is located at an altitude of 1836 meters. Access to the settlement is only on foot or by cable car. In addition, forest walks, mountain biking and paragliding. All the entertainment that is possible in this corner of the world is aimed at forgetting about cars.
Hamburg, Germany
The dream of living in a city without cars is a reality, and Hamburg strives for it. Thanks to the Green Planet program, the need to use a car in the city will be eliminated within 20 years. The German city is already full of green spaces: sports facilities, gardens, parks and squares. The administration decided to start a program to build cycle paths.
Vauban, on the outskirts of Freiburg, Germany
The city government of Vauban in 2006 decided to ban the use of cars. Citizens can only use the tram that leads to the center of Freiburg. The city is not big - everything is within walking distance.
Helsinki, Finland
In Finland, too, time is coming to an end for a car: by 2024, the use of a car will be reduced to a minimum. Thanks to the App program presented last July. Using a smartphone, city dwellers will choose the fastest route and method of travel.
Monte Isola, Iseo
Monte Isola, an island village in the middle of Lake Iseo. The island can be reached by ferry. The only means of transportation are scooters, which are allowed for residents.
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Today there are cities where driving is prohibited. What is the alternative? Somewhere there are golf carts, somewhere boats, and somewhere donkeys.
The most acceptable means of transportation in the village of Giethoorn are watercraft - electric robots that run exclusively on electricity. They calmly swim under humped bridges connecting houses on different banks of the canal. This way of life is due to the geographical conditions of the village. Local residents, having learned that their lands are rich in peat, dug it up wherever possible. In this way, pits were formed, which were filled with water. Gradually, the lakes were connected, forming a chain of canals.
There are no private cars in the village located in an alpine valley. They were banned for fear of air pollution. Even policemen move along the streets by bicycles, horses or on foot. Emergency and utilities still have vehicles, but they are only electric.
Hydra, or Hydra, is a Greek island. It has the status of a nature reserve, so any type of transport is prohibited here: no exhaust gases that pollute the air. The only car is a garbage truck.
All cars, including taxis, stop at the entrance to the city of Sviyazhsk. This museum of attractions is only 1.5 by 0.5 km around the perimeter. It can be explored in an hour. Given such small distances, it is better to inspect all architectural structures on foot than looking out of the bus window.
Perhaps Venice is one of the most famous cities, where other than water transport is inappropriate. A couple of years ago, the authorities even banned bicycles. Violators of the order will have to pay a fine of 50 euros. In Venice, completely surrounded by water, cars, even if they wanted to, could not drive along the narrow old streets and numerous bridges. The main means of transportation are gondolas, boats, small boats.
The city of Mackinaw Island occupies the island of the same name on Lake Huron. There are two ways to get to it: by plane and by boat. On the island's land, you should forget about motor transport. Residents adopted a ban on motorized vehicles back in 1898. Perhaps the people in power were far-sighted politicians: they understood that the world would be filled with cars and "poisoned" the environment. Traveling around the island is possible only by bike, horse or on foot.
Mdina is called the city of silence. In order not to disturb the local prosperity, only those who live in the city are allowed to use cars here. Neither tourists from other countries, nor even from neighboring settlements, can enter Mdina by car.
By the way, in Valletta, the capital of Malta, you cannot drive a car either. But there it is understandable: the streets, built in the 16th century, are difficult for modern transport to pass, since the city roads were originally intended for the movement of horsemen and carriages.
In these cities and towns around the world, you will walk a lot. These communities have taken a step towards reducing carbon dioxide emissions in their little corners of the world. They don't just offer alternatives to vehicles for transportation; they make it a must. Do you think this is not possible?
Hydra Island, Greece
This 28 square miles island in the Aegean Sea is a great place to enjoy a car-free life. Access to the water on Hydra Island makes it easy to travel around the island by water taxi, and most locals transport large items on a donkey. Tourists can also hire a donkey, but everything is so close that walking is rarely a problem. The popularity of Hydra Island may be due in part to the filming of a large number of films. Captain's villas, monasteries and cathedrals, beautiful architecture attracts many artists and writers to the island. 
Tangier Island, Virginia
This town is home to only 650 people. The islanders speak an interesting English-Irish dialect and only travel on foot or by boat.
Parismina, Costa Rica
There is no paved road leading to this small village and the only means of transport is a tractor that is used to collect trash. Other novelties that will set you back in time are the schematics of telephone services, the absence of a local post office, and the absence of any banking institutions or ATM machines. One of the local attractions is the sea turtles that come across the sand to lay their eggs.
Halibut Cove, Alaska
Available only by water taxi, Halibut Cove is a lovely community located in Kachemak National Park. Originally a fishing village, Cove is now a place primarily for artists. It is a floating community and boasts the only floating post office in the United States.
Sark Island, United Kingdom
This elegant island is located six miles east of Guernsey and can only be reached by boat. Once you've landed on the island, transportation is limited to walking, cycling, and freight. Several tractors on the island are licensed for limited use only. the island is very limited and only accessible to those who have lived there for at least 15 years. The island is referred to as Dark Sky Village, in part due to its location, but also due to the lack of street lighting.
Makino, Michigan
Although Michigan was home to the first car assembly plant, Makino breaks that mold by being a car-free city. On the island, you will only encounter hooves and crowds of pedestrians and cyclists. With a resident population of just under 500, Mackinac is a renowned car-free tourist destination with the large island park Mackinac Island State Park.
Studying on the islands
Not surprisingly, many of these car-free cities - island communities, with somewhat forced car-free status - have been associated with the difficulties of transporting cars in the past. But today, these communities have chosen a path - to be left without a car. By doing this, they undoubtedly hurt themselves in some way, but most residents take pride in the status of a car-free community. It seems that communities around the world need to take a hint from these islands to help the environment and live without a car.Your opinion
What do you think about life without a car? Do you know places where people live without using road transport?I must confess to being very stupid. Once, about 7 years ago, I arrived in Amsterdam and rented a car to drive around the city. What a fool I was! I still remember how I was constantly looking for parking, how I paid 5 euros per hour, how my only desire was to get rid of the car. This is a city where you don't need a car! It is much more comfortable to travel by trams, metro (yes, there is a metro in Amsterdam) and, of course, by bike!
I have already written a lot about the transport of the Dutch capital. Today there are some interesting details.
01. Finding a bike parking is not always easy. Additional seats will be equipped on barges! How! 
02. The city has a big problem with abandoned bicycles. And tourists are often to blame for this! For example, if you come to Amsterdam for a week, then there is a temptation to buy an old bike for 50 euros! And some buy stolen bicycles at all for a penny. What do they do with them then? That's right - they just quit. There are so many bicycles that sometimes the Dutch themselves forget where they left their bike. Someone just buys a new one, and the old one forgets. 
03. Underground bike parking in the very center! 
04. Costs € 2.50 per day. Everything is like for cars. 
05. There are even such designs. 
06. Sooner or later, abandoned bicycles come to an end. 
07. This is a warning about incorrect or too long parking of the bike. From the moment of appearance of such a sticker, the owner of the bike is given two weeks to remove it to another place. If this does not happen, then the road services cut the bike on their own, and the owner is sent a fine to reimburse the cost of the work performed. The main thing is to find the owner) 
08. Shop the world's best folding bicycles Brompton. Dear ones, but worth it! 
09. For some time now, bike paths began to appear on the streets along the canals. 
10. In general, the city has very good cycling infrastructure. 
11. Parking at the station. 
12. Ferry stop! Ferries, by the way, are free. Don't be afraid to take a ride to the other side. 
13. Parking on the street. 
14. Parking by the house. Everything is littered with bicycles. 
15. With regret, I have to admit that more and more scooters appear in Amsterdam (They use the bicycle infrastructure, make noise and frighten passers-by. I hope the city authorities will find justice on them. 
16. You don't always need a zebra on the crossing! I would say that in most cases it is not needed at all. The main thing is to highlight the pedestrian, not mask it. 
17. Option with a zebra. 
18. Artificial unevenness to calm traffic. 
19. Replacement of tiles and designation of the place of repair. 
20. The Dutch post issued these electric cars to the postmen. 
21. Now postmen go from house to house and deliver parcels even more efficiently. 
22. Old transport. 
23. New transport. By the way, in Amsterdam many city taxi services use Tesla. A good opportunity to ride and see the car. 
24. Classics. 
25. More and more of these ugly little cars. 
26. They are here equated with bicycles and scooters. 
27. Amsterdam Central Station. 
28. The station square is clean. Trams come here, here are the terminal stations of the metro and buses. 
29. A barrier-free environment everywhere. 
30. Very cool ticket booths and tourist information kiosks were also built here. 
31.
32. Amsterdam train station is extremely interesting to explore. One of the best TPUs in the world. On the second floor there is an exit to buses. 
33. Bicycle pedestrian tunnel. 
34. And this is how the ticket purchase hall looks like. There are also tables where you can plan your route in Holland by public transport! You say where you need to, and they print the timetable of trains and buses for you. Very comfortably! 
35. Toilet at the station. 
36. For 7 euros you can take a shower. 
37. Tram. 
38.
39. Amsterdam trams are very strange. For example, each has a booth with a conductor! The ticket costs 3 euros. 
40. The entrance is either through the front door or through the middle one. 
41. In general, trams are comfortable and run frequently. 
42. And this is how the board with the schedule looks like. 
43. Ways. 
44. Stop in the center. 
45. What could be better than taking a boat, wine and going through the canals at night? 
46. Boat cork. 
47. You can also live on a boat. 
48.
49. That's it. Share your experience! 
Imagine children playing soccer on the streets of the city. Imagine tourists taking pictures carelessly in the middle of the road. Restaurants that set their tables right on the street. And around - no cars, no motorcycles, no buses. This is roughly how I remember Venice, the only city without cars that I have seen. We were there with friends during our summer vacation at the university. We then hitchhiked around Italy. Venice is, of course, unique in that it is built on small islands.
But still it was very pleasant - to be in a city where you can wander without dodging cars.
Over the past 100 years, cars have become the dominant force in the urban landscape. Streets are specially widened so that it is possible to drive through them more freely and faster, so that there is more parking space. Private cars have revolutionized the way we move, but at the same time have brought with them many problems - from air pollution to road accidents. And today a small but growing number of cities are trying to get rid of cars. Oslo and Madrid have made headlines over the past few years about their government's plans to ban traffic in the center of these capitals. The plans, however, have not yet been fully realized.
How to save a gasping city?
However, these intentions represent a broader trend: to make traffic in large cities as difficult as possible. Here is London with its payment for entry into the central districts of the city, and Mexico City with the initiative "pico y placa" (when your right to drive on certain city routes depends on whether your car number ends with an even or odd number), and several small cities that have decided prohibit car traffic altogether (for example, Pontevedra in Spain).
“Our main goal is to bring the streets back to the people,” says Hanna Markussen, Oslo's deputy mayor for urban development. “It’s important to understand how we want to use our streets, and what they are for in general. We believe that the streets are where you meet people, where you eat in outdoor restaurants, where children play, where artists show their work. "
To achieve this, in Oslo, part of the streets in the city center was completely closed to cars, almost all parking spaces were removed, replacing them with bike paths, benches and miniature parks.
The Norwegian capital Oslo has made a concerted effort to remove cars from its main streets. / Getty Images
There is also an environmental aspect. Oslo was built in a geological depression, which is why the city (especially in winter) suffers from severe air pollution. According to local authorities, over the past ten years, the degree of pollution has decreased significantly. Oslo residents are less likely to use a car to travel around the city (from 35% of trips in 2009 to 27% in 2018), and the number of people using bicycles, public transport or simply walking for this has increased. H. Crawford is perhaps the world's most famous advocate of car-free cities, and has authored two books on the subject.
“In addition to the long-standing problems associated with environmental pollution and millions of deaths in car accidents, the most unpleasant consequences of the impact of cars on society must be recognized as the incredible damage they cause to social space,” he emphasizes.
The bottom line is that cars significantly reduce social interaction. “The most popular places for residents in cities are places without cars,” says Crawford. These are parks, squares or streets given over to pedestrians. According to him, in such American cities as Houston and Dallas, up to 70% of urban land is given for parking. “The current housing crisis is due to a lack of land. Get rid of the cars and the problem will be solved right there. "
No cars at all?
A city with no cars? Sounds attractive. But is this possible? And does everyone want it? How about emergency services? And what will people who find it difficult to walk on foot do? And what will happen to the sprawling suburbs of megacities, with the so-called dormitory areas? Are we trying to impose on all the townspeople an idea that is popular mainly only among the younger generation who want to live and work in the city center?
"The fastest way to kill a city center is to keep people from going there," says Hugh Bladen of the British Drivers' Association.
The dying trade and business on the central streets of many British cities will not be helped in any way by restrictions on car traffic, he emphasizes, and city centers will quickly turn into a haven of drug addicts and drunks. He agrees that many cities are too crowded with cars, but in his opinion, this is due to poor planning. You just need more parking in the right places.
The city center will die if people are not allowed to come there, but if the right alternative in the form of public transport is provided, then everything will be fine. / Getty Images
Ransford Achimpong, an urban planning researcher at the University of Manchester, says banning cars will help clean the air and improve people's health, but if you take a car, provide an alternative. Even in Europe, where public transport works pretty well, for many, life is completely impossible without a car. There is such a concept of the "last mile", "pedestrian shoulder" from the bus stop to the house. This is the final part of our daily itinerary, and if public transport does not make this part to a minimum, we will still be driving. And while Deputy Mayor of Oslo Markussen does justice to the argument about an invasion of human rights when his ability to travel by car is taken away. she stresses: “In many cases, not restricting traffic means restricting the freedoms of others. Cars prevent children from playing on the streets and older people from crossing the road. "
“Oslo also has a problem with air pollution. We can say that cars violate the rights of people with asthma, forcing them to stay at home and not go anywhere when the level of pollution is particularly high, ”she says.
What does it take to free the city from cars?
In the master plan of a Big City (a suburb of Chengdu, China), any place can be reached on foot. There are no dead ends, there are many intersections, so it's nice to walk or ride a bike here. There is also a "vertical link": skyscrapers are connected by air bridges. The large city, planned for the life of 100 thousand people, covers an area of only one square kilometer. The maximum amount of time that must be spent when moving from one point to another is 10 minutes. What are the giants of the city sick What should not be the society of the future - nine tips Will we move underground?
Unfortunately, this suburb is still in the plans. Its development was ordered by the Chengdu authorities back in 2012 by the American architectural firm SmithGill, but it was never built. However, it is clear that this urban area is quite ready to do without cars.
“We wanted the kids to be able to walk to school there, and the adults didn’t have to travel long distances to work,” says firm spokesman Chris Drew.
This suburb would be connected with the rest of the city by two railway lines, so there would be no need for a car.
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi initially did not provide for the use of cars. / Getty Images
There are a couple more examples of new cities that were about to become more or less car-free. Earlier, Drew worked on the Masdar City (United Arab Emirates) project, which at first was planned to completely get rid of cars, but now cars are sometimes found on its streets. SmithGill also helped develop the master plan for the 2020 Dubai World Fair, which is expected to be fully pedestrianized and populated after World Expo, and will be assisted by a variety of interconnected hubs, each with a tram or light rail stop. surrounded by shops, offices and residential developments. Residents will need no more than five minutes to walk to a public transport stop.
In theory, it will take a little over half an hour to cross this new city.
These are all plans, but how to remake the already existing cities in which most people live today? Hannah Markussen explains the Oslo authorities' approach in the following way: “We started with pilot projects so that people could see for themselves how everything would be, we introduced changes very gradually.”
“For example, one of the most beautiful squares in Oslo, near the city hall, used to be completely packed with cars,” she says. - A year ago, we banned parking there, closed the entrance there, and at first it seemed strange to people. But now they already think that it was strange that we allowed cars to drive there. "
A future without cars?
“Looking to the future with optimism, this trend will only strengthen,” says Achimpong. - Take a look at the statistics - apparently, we have passed the peak of the popularity of owning a car and are driving less now. There is also a big difference in habits between millennials and baby boomers, between different generations. "
He believes that young people are increasingly abandoning car ownership. All this indicates that the dominance of cars in our cities will gradually fade away naturally.
Not all cities can be as car-free as Venice, but if you prioritize the interests of pedestrians and cyclists, then something will work out. / Getty Images On the other hand, he points out, there is a growing demand for new transportation services - such as Uber or Lyft, or self-driving taxis. “But these are also cars,” he emphasizes.
Achimpong notes that in most developing countries, the popularity of car ownership is booming, and their governments are taking this into account when developing infrastructure with the interests of car owners in mind. It is by cars that most trips are made in metropolitan areas far from the center of the metropolis - take, for example, the M25 in London or Beijing, where there are as many as seven ring roads.
Ditching cars would have been relatively easy for old European cities that had existed without them for centuries.
But for megalopolises, which have grown simultaneously with highways and large parking lots, it will be much more difficult to do this. It is difficult to say how far this trend will take us. Anyway, I don't forget that the only way to get out of car-free Venice was to stand on the side of the road, vote and wait for a car to stop ...
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