Why Europe is going car free?

 Early in my days of pro center city advocacy, I was somewhat troubled about how advocates jumped on the ideas of Hans Monderman and the woonerf or shared street, streets designed to mix motor vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, as a way to slow traffic and better balance mobility between the car and non motorized forms.

It wasn't because I don't believe in making pedestrian and bike trips better, but because the US physical environment is so dominated by the car and much of the nation's urban form, outside of the cities built up to the streetcar era ("Transportation and Urban Form: Stages in the Spatial Evolution of the American Metropolis") is shaped for the car.  In short, a woonerf, at least in the US, will still be dominated by the car, and worse, by mixing different types of traffic, it will create new conflicts.  

One place you see this in DC is at the Wharf, both on the boardwalk where there can be vehicles, and in the outer perimeter where there is a separate bicycle path, but it is crossed frequently by pedestrians getting to the sidewalk.  

For the boardwalk, they probably should have made all the service access underground.  WRT the cycletrack, it probably should have been further out into the street right of way.

There is an article in the Washington Post, "Why Europe is going ‘car free’," about congestion zones and low emissions zones for cars, (but not so much discussion of pedestrian districts in most major cities, which is a distinguishing condition between US cities and European ones).  That Europe is going car free while the US is not.

In one way, it's another example in the US of what I call "next generation asphalt nation," that instead of aiming to shift more traffic to sustainable modes, we are focusing on electric cars and maybe hydrogen powered heavy trucks, to be more environmentally conscious, when not driving is the best choice for the environment--note this is happening some as people switch from cars to electric bikes.

The amazing thing about so much of Europe is that it retains the "streetcar era" and "walking city era" urban form.  So you can go "car free" because your life is not harnessed to the car the way it is in the US--92% of all trips involve a car.

In short the author is making the same mistake as woonerf opponents.  Promote better policies where they can work.  Don't try to adopt other treatments without consideration and adaptation.

For example, people in DC talk about a congestion zone pricing scheme.  But DC, especially with the Trump Administration's destruction of government, has so many commercial district competitors in  the metropolitan area: Montgomery, Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun Counties, and Alexandria City, that businesses could easily pick up and leave.  That's much harder to do in NYC or London.

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This came up today in the Park in SLC for which I am on the board.  A graduate student doing a design study of the park suggested grade separation of the walking and bicycle paths--the park is a one way loop road with smaller lanes for walking and biking, a motor vehicle lane, and a parking lane.  It works pretty well.

Parc La Fontaine, Montreal

I am embarrassed to say this didn't occur to me. It will probably take at least 5 years to try to pull off.  But it's worth trying.