A City Without Cars ?
It's hard to imagine Beijing without cars as it seems so far away from the direction the city is traveling. For a few thousand Beijing actually had no cars and functioned pretty well. While I can't see that Beijing is going to remove cars anytime in the near future it is still worth thinking about how this city might be shaped in the future and hearing the opinion of the urban visionary Enrique Penolosa from www.bigthink.com.
Enrique is the former mayor of Bogota Columbia and was responsible for transforming the city into a showcase for smart urban mobility - favouring bicycles and BRT (Bus Rapid Transport System) over personal automobile.
He talks about the mistakes that were made in the 20th Century when cities were planned for cars and not people. Previous to this for 5000 years we had great cities which were pedestrianized and since the end of the 20th century progressive cities have been moving back to this focus.
It is interesting to note that he mentions the following
"And everywhere in the world I would say that in any advanced city today transport policy translates in to how to reduce car use."
Obviously he hasn't been to Beijing.
