Should We Ban Cars From Cities?

Paris, Barcelona, Groningen: 3 cities, 3 solutions to tackle pollution, heatwaves, livability. As global urban populations rise, rethinking city solutions is key. How can we reclaim and revitalize our cities for a cooler, cleaner, and happier future?

00:00 Mean Streets
02:42 Changing Narratives
07:07 Give Fiets a chance
07:33 No Traffic Lights
08:47 Groningen's Quality of Life
11:49 More space for people = Less space for cars
12:32 Jan Kamensky, the Visual Utopian
13:18 Barcelona: Superblocks = Super Islands
15:12 The Bike Bus
17:42 Vocal critics remain
19:40 People resist change
20:35 Time travel in Hamburg
22:02 Parisians were ready for change
24:29 The Changing Face of Paris
26:38 The 15-Minute City explained
28:33 Imagining the Champs-Élysées
30:56 Taking the long view
32:16 Dystop-IAA

A film by
Miguel Ángel Cano Santizo & Michael Trobridge

Special thanks to the following for their cooperation:


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REV - The Global Auto and Mobility Show from Deutsche Welle

#DW #DWREV #SUPERBLOCKS

[alexh]

"You are not stuck in traffic, you are traffic" is such a powerful message

[MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

When we lived in America, we’d watch the cool things Europeans were doing but believed the narrative that those things work over there, but could never work here. It wasn’t until we started living in Germany and learning about urban planning that I learned most of Europe was starting to turn into totally car centric places through the 70’s. And they literally tore up asphalt and redesigned city roads to make them friendly for people. This can be done in America!! They can change zoning even out in the suburbs to make sure neighborhoods are close to essential services like a small grocery store.

[Spido_the_spectator]

Fun fact : the Netherlands is also one of the best places to drive your car around.
Shows how reserving roads for cars and streets for people benefits everyone

[purpurina]

For anyone interested in urban mobility I recommend the channel Not Just Bikes. The creator is Canadian living in Amsterdam, and is very knowledgeable.

[dog-eznu]

'Some people disagree'

*cuts to owner of a Porshe garage*

That was actually quite funny.

[pjny]

The 'Open Streets' that were developed during the pandemic here in NYC have been incredible, and people are fighting to keep most of them.

[syiridium]

Strange to hear someone from Tourism Association to talk about the economic impact of reducing car dependency and increasing public spaces.
When I visited Barcelona, I ignored the parks and pedestrian zones and rather went to walk along the highways to inhale some particulate matter and other car emissions. No, wait, it was the other way around! But still, it could be just me. It could be that tourists want the noise and smell of multi-lane highways instead of nice quite cafes and calm parks...

Also, I, of course, completely understand that car enthusiasts would miss the possibility to have a blast across the city. But, you know, he/she who generates the money decides how they will be spent. And a few rich people in Porsches are not going to pay for building and maintaining of all the roads. So, yeah, they have to yield to bikes, pedestrians and the public transport. That's just how things work in a fair society.

I understand that people are anxious about all changes. I also like(d) to sit around in a climate controlled privacy box that gets me to places without much (physical) effort. Unfortunately, we, as a society, discovered that if everyone wants to do it like that, it just does not work (whether it is climate, economics or space limitations). It is also not good for us individually. We are just designed to be getting some base level of physical activity every day and if we don't, we will, sooner or later, suffer the consequences.
And, as was proven by many other cities, these changes won't make us die in an agonizing death but quite the opposite.
So, be happy, don't worry and embrace and support these changes (and if you are a city planner, also think about them extensively, so they don't end up as a horrid mess of "patchy" so-so solutions).

[hydrolifetech]

15:51
'You are only a true citizen when you can exercise all your rights, not only that of transportation.'
Well said!

[Altis_play]

We are living a fast mutation of our urbanism in Paris, it doesn't please everyone yet, but it's a pleasure to enjoy these new living spaces!

Thanks for sharing, it was a pleasure to be part of this documentary.

[GuidoHaverkort]

"You are only a true citizen when you can exercise all your rights, not only that of transportation"

Very powerful quote from which america can learn a lot

[timothygroten]

One thing I wish these videos would discuss is the financial productivity that occurs when building spaces like this. The capital to build roads and maintain them for cars is insanely expensive. Pedestrian infrastructure is much cheaper, and allows for denser development, leading to higher property taxes per government infrastructure spending.
In Houston, for example, they are beginning demolition of a big apartment complex next week so that they can expand I-45 through a developing part of the city. This is occurring in the middle of a housing crisis.
When I watch these things, it makes me wonder when America will start changing its government structures that are designed around cars. Our federal, state, and local governments are all designed around car dependency, and it will take a long time to restructure them. Our Department of Transportation was designed to be a highway building machine that destroyed our cities, and they continue to do so today.

[aleenaprasannan]

There is already several studies that have proved that commercial activity increases when the area is pedestrian prioritized and traffic restricted. Somebody has to show this to that person from the Tourism Association. There are several commercial streets throughout the world that restricts or outright ban motor vehicles, including Tourists spots. An example from my country is Rock Beach in Pondicherry, India which is flanked by a thriving commercial street.
Tourists wants to walk and explore either by foot or rented bicycles, not just get dropped off in locations just to click a picture. Only the insanely rich plans their vacation solely based on individual vehicles; most travel on budget and would prefer public transport.

[Rodegon___]

The bit at the end about green washing our cities was wonderful. You could've had an animation where all the green cars were electric, yet honking and getting into mass traffic jams.

[jakenguyen]

The United States adds roughly 8 parking spots for every car... The amount of waste and inefficiency that goes into driving is truly insane.

[caviedes]

It will be a hard work, but it is totally necessary to get cities back to people, just for our health and world ‘s health!! Great video!!!

[randriu]

from week to week i want to move to the netherlands more and more. love how the country looks and how people have taste...

[Junakase]

Some of the most beautiful streets I have seen are in Japan. Lots of smaller side streets there don't have many traffic lights, like the intersections in Amsterdam, and no side walks either. So cars have to share the same space with pedestrians and cyclists. And those streets are quite narrow as well, which forces car drivers to reduce speed and pay attention to others around them. Naturally, traffic in those streets is very low, even though you actually do see a car in front of almost every house.
The other thing are lots of plants growing somewhere every few meters, not even arranged by people, but just growing there naturally, which gives you a very cosy and peaceful feeling, even though you're in the middle of a city.

[neurofiedyamato]

18:01, I hate how she compared how fast it is to get one place to another via driving.
By removing cars off the streets, transit and biking is faster instead. Rather than saying "driving used to take 35 minutes, and now takes 1:45:00" she should say "It used to take 35 minutes by driving to get there, now it takes X minutes to get there via transit or biking." Its a disingenuous comment because it fails to acknowledge all other mode of transportation that gets improved with less traffic on the streets.

[visualutopias]

Many thanks to Miguel Angel Cano Santizo and Michael Trobridge for this very worthwhile documentary! May it reach a lot of people.

I am very pleased to have been able to contribute to it. So many inspiring voices!

[dompopp]

I've been living in Groningen for the past 4 years and it is amazing how well everything is designed here. The bicycle paths are insanely well designed, not only in the very efficient routes that they take but also in the sheer number of them.
As an example, I live on the outskirts of the city and I can get to the center by bicycle in HALF the time it takes a car.