3 Ways to Overcome a Century of Car-Centric Planning

The consequences of car-centric planning are clear, a century after cars took over streets and lives across this country. According to this article, so to is a new way forward.

1 minute read

December 21, 2019, 5:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Car Graveyard

Rich Anderson / flickr

Richard Kingston and Ransford A. Acheampong write on the subject of reversing the course of the past century of car-centric planning around the world. The consequences of this epoch-defining priority on the automobile make the need for change clear, according to the article:

It is estimated that there are more than a billion cars in the world. As well as driving up energy use, contributing to more than 70 per cent of C0₂ emissions in the transport sector and reducing air quality, cars are also responsible for increasing obesity and chronic illnesses and killing more than 1.25m people around the globe every year in traffic accidents.

Kingston and Acheampong offer three prescriptions, already implemented to varying degrees, to those outcomes: 1) car-free zones and charges, 2) public transit investments, and 3) improved urban planning and land use. More details on each of these three prescriptions are offered in the source article.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019 in Citymetric

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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