I respect your preferences -- I certainly don't want to take vehicles away from everyone. But I do want to limit their impact on my happiness and the sustainability of our civilization.
Personally I think personal vehicles simply shouldn't exist in dense cities. They take up too much space to move around and to park, they cause too much noise, and when they interact with other transportation -- by foot, by bike, by scooter, whatever -- there's a fractional blood price I'm not OK with. Not to mention the fact that people in cars in the cities I've lived in frequently become raging jerks who use their car as a weapon to enforce their own entitlement to all public space.
As a car enthusiast, do you think it's OK to ban personal vehicles from US cities? I envision a world where secure parking garages exist on the periphery of a public transit, walk, and bike-dominated space for folks who still want to own a car while living in a city -- or for folks who want to visit a city via car. This periphery would largely align with existing ring roads around US cities. Outside of the periphery, folks could live near the benefits of the city with a garage, car, street parking, etc. But they wouldn't travel into the city via car.
Deliveries would largely happen at night or in the early morning, when pedestrian traffic is the lightest. Ride shares would exist for the disabled only, with everyone else using their feet, a bicycle, or public transit to move around the car-free zone. Building out public transit, bike lanes, etc. would become very cheap in the absence of personal vehicle traffic, because you could just put street cars, buses, bike paths, and light rail on top of 90% of the existing streets.
And of course, if you don't live in a major city, your life wouldn't change at all. You just wouldn't drive into the downtown of any of the top 50-to-100-population US cities. I suspect some small towns might embrace a similar model if it's successful in big cities, but not many.
What do you think of this future model? It would let people who want to live car-free in a community do so in a dense urban environment. It would let people who want to live with cars do so in the existing exurbs and rural parts of the US. I have a hard time seeing major flaws, but I'm likely biased since I desperately want a car-free environment here in the US.
Personally I think personal vehicles simply shouldn't exist in dense cities. They take up too much space to move around and to park, they cause too much noise, and when they interact with other transportation -- by foot, by bike, by scooter, whatever -- there's a fractional blood price I'm not OK with. Not to mention the fact that people in cars in the cities I've lived in frequently become raging jerks who use their car as a weapon to enforce their own entitlement to all public space.
As a car enthusiast, do you think it's OK to ban personal vehicles from US cities? I envision a world where secure parking garages exist on the periphery of a public transit, walk, and bike-dominated space for folks who still want to own a car while living in a city -- or for folks who want to visit a city via car. This periphery would largely align with existing ring roads around US cities. Outside of the periphery, folks could live near the benefits of the city with a garage, car, street parking, etc. But they wouldn't travel into the city via car.
Deliveries would largely happen at night or in the early morning, when pedestrian traffic is the lightest. Ride shares would exist for the disabled only, with everyone else using their feet, a bicycle, or public transit to move around the car-free zone. Building out public transit, bike lanes, etc. would become very cheap in the absence of personal vehicle traffic, because you could just put street cars, buses, bike paths, and light rail on top of 90% of the existing streets.
And of course, if you don't live in a major city, your life wouldn't change at all. You just wouldn't drive into the downtown of any of the top 50-to-100-population US cities. I suspect some small towns might embrace a similar model if it's successful in big cities, but not many.
What do you think of this future model? It would let people who want to live car-free in a community do so in a dense urban environment. It would let people who want to live with cars do so in the existing exurbs and rural parts of the US. I have a hard time seeing major flaws, but I'm likely biased since I desperately want a car-free environment here in the US.