Posted on 01/28/2014 9:59:34 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine
Germany, home of the high-speed autobahn, is perhaps one of the few countries that has had as intense a love affair with the automobile as the U.S. But in an effort to go green, the country's second-largest city is studying ways to eliminate cars by 2034.
The northern city of Hamburg has laid out an initial concept, named the Green Network Plan, that would expand public transportation and add more routes for pedestrians and bicyclists. The most controversial aspect of the plan calls for a steady phase-out of automobiles in the center of the city over the next two decades.
And Hamburg might not be alone. The idea of banning, or at least reducing, the use of automobiles in city centers has become an increasingly hot topic among urban planners, especially in Europe and other industrialized countries dealing with issues as diverse as congestion and smog.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
What works for Europe won’t work here and vice versa.
...let’s start with LA
This should go over BIG with the German’s “silent majority”. God knows, the German people have just hated building and driving cars for over 100 years.
I suppose that the “Greens”, having thrown the towel over energy and global warming, are now moving to the consuming end of their supposed “problem”.
Their government will experience a big, practical, conservative backlash over ridiculous ideas such as this-just like this one will.
public transportation is an improvement for predators hunting victims and for germs to infect. Hamburg will suck.
Are we talking the entire city, or mainly city centers?
“Are we talking the entire city, or mainly city centers?”
Basically, most very large city “downtowns” have already effectively solved this problem - try to find parking, and then try to find parking that isn’t fantastically expensive.
Hey, the Air Force could bomb it again. Quick and efficient way to clear out the center of the city and its cars, and its buildings and its people. A Three-fer.
Calling the 8th Air Force. We have a mission! Norden bombsights for all!
Isn't it just a tad on the cool side, riding a bike in the middle of January?
Gosh, never heard this original version. Two others, I think.
Die Fahrbahn ist ein graues Band
Weisse Streifen, gruener Rand
That’s deep!
Bingo!
“That idea works if the center of the city has a very intensive public transit system”
That only works if it is free from unassimilated bandits. In US cities you are only safe if you use a “convoy system”, where bands of people that are homogeneous afford each other a measure of safety.
Yes, the bicycle system would definitely be the solution. Cars just clog up the roads when it snows. If they weren’t there, cyclists would have a lot more room. Also, cars block the invigorating effects of -50 F windchill.
/s, just in case
Yes, traffic jams lead to lower speeds and fewer bad accidents.
Less lanes, less cars, lower speeds, less accidents. Great for pedestrians and bikes, a major pain for people living in the area. The road is a state route! They let them cut it from 4 lanes to 2 with one turn lane. To drive a one mile stretch on a busy day takes a while. People then drive through the neighborhoods, increasing traffic on residential streets.
They did that to a main street in a nearby suburb. Nice in the summer time since there is a lot of pedestrian and bike traffic. Lots of action for stores.
January? Not so good. No pedestrians, no bikes, no walk-ins for the stores. Traffic jams due to 2-lanes, still major pain for people living in the area.
On size fits all won’t work in about half the country where winter happens.
There was a proposal on another nearby wider road for raised medians, which would narrow where turns are needed. This didn’t happen due to ‘budget’ problems. I would hope saner minds realized that forcing cars wanting to turn into a limited number of defined short turn lanes would have been a disaster.
If the turn lane can hold 3 cars and 6 cars want to turn, the whole through lane is blocked. People either wait, or change lanes. More frustration and accidents. They eventually avoid that lane altogether, thereby narrowing the road by a lane. Turn lanes without raised medians allow drivers to adjust how many cars can fit into the turn lane at a time.
“If cars were banned cities would become much less spread out as local demand for services would draw businesses closer.”
Without cars, what mode of transit would you use to carry a week’s worth of groceries back to your Marxist hovel?
That's one of the stupidest things I've seen written.
Cities existed long before cars. People didn't have to carry a weeks worth of groceries because the groceries came to them. A daily walk to the town market was enough to satisfy the need for food.
The law of supply and demand was developed on observing prices at these food markets, btw.
“That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve seen written.”
Oh, my. Did I upset your Marxist dreamscape of human worker ants crammed into squalid big city hellholes?
Of course you did. Don't you understand that unelected Marxist "exspurts" have the right to decide everything for the masses, komrade ?
He/she/it is upset.
My solution is simpler. Shoot the city planners - or fund their departments at $1 per year, with no graft allowed.
” Shoot the city planners - or fund their departments at $1 per year, with no graft allowed.”
A most excellent suggestion, jimt. In my previous incarnation in village politics, I was amazed by the number engineering firms, county board members and village council apparatchiks who lapped up the ridiculous city planning crapola spewed out by the Marxists in New York City.
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