I was in Salt Lake City yesterday. Was one of the most bike friendly cities I’ve ever been to in the US. A group ride with 100s of people was happening until midnight. There was also decent public transportation and tons of rentable bicycles and scooters galore. Ya’ll should be proud of what you’ve done there downtown.
Granted it was still an American city. There was still loud car traffic and lengthy timed crosswalks.
But it did give me an idea. What if cars were prohibited from downtown? If there were well placed parking decks surrounding the square? What if shipping trucks used back alleys or were infrequent enough that they could drive on walking surfaces? People would walk or use bikes or scooters to get where they need to go. Perhaps a hop-on-hop-off train or buses or tram for longer commutes for those who cannot or choose not to walk?
The streets would be quiet. Green spaces abound interspersed among the buildings. The city could be built for people and life instead of cars.
In Barcelona they converted the grids so instead of having all traffic on every street it is one for cars in direction a, one for pedestrians and cyclists and then one for cars in the other direction and again one for pedestrians and cyclists etc, they still manage to stock stores etc so it’s very possible.
I was in Salt Lake City yesterday. Was one of the most bike friendly cities I’ve ever been to in the US. A group ride with 100s of people was happening until midnight. There was also decent public transportation and tons of rentable bicycles and scooters galore. Ya’ll should be proud of what you’ve done there downtown.
Granted it was still an American city. There was still loud car traffic and lengthy timed crosswalks.
But it did give me an idea. What if cars were prohibited from downtown? If there were well placed parking decks surrounding the square? What if shipping trucks used back alleys or were infrequent enough that they could drive on walking surfaces? People would walk or use bikes or scooters to get where they need to go. Perhaps a hop-on-hop-off train or buses or tram for longer commutes for those who cannot or choose not to walk?
The streets would be quiet. Green spaces abound interspersed among the buildings. The city could be built for people and life instead of cars.
how would downtown get deliveries of any kind?
In Barcelona they converted the grids so instead of having all traffic on every street it is one for cars in direction a, one for pedestrians and cyclists and then one for cars in the other direction and again one for pedestrians and cyclists etc, they still manage to stock stores etc so it’s very possible.
There are plenty of cities around the world with downtowns closed to cars, and a lot of thriving stores.
There are solutions, this is not an excuse to to allow cars in city centers
Outside peak hours, by very slow-moving delivery vehicles. This is a solved problem all over Europe