cities without cars

[joshsam]

Originally Posted by earthJoker

Well, it would be interesting to see the numbers with tourists included.

indeed...BUt I guess no one counts then though...

Edit:

Artical 20.000.000 tourist a year!!! About 55.000 a day

(AP) A message to visitors to Venice: No bare torsos in St. Mark's Square. No lounging on the monuments. And no feet dangling in the canals.

Henry James observed more than a century ago: "Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors."

Multiply that in the bargain-travel era: A whopping 20 million tourists are expected this year, and many are just the kind of day-tripper believed to wreak the most havoc on Venice's delicate ecology and architecture, without leaving behind a financial footprint that would help officials at least neutralize their impact.

"Venice has a cultural history that needs to be protected. The image of the city is being hurt by the napkins that are being left in St. Mark's Square," said Augusto Salvadori, the city official in charge of public conduct. He has launched the campaign to encourage tourists, and Venetians, to treat the city in a manner befitting its stature.

Salvadori has had signs erected around the city advising visitors: Don't picnic in public places. Don't treat the canals as if they were a beach. Don't write messages for fellow travelers on the monuments. Violaters face fines of $67, and the city has deployed enforcement stewards.

But such practical admonishments, while welcome, don't address the root of the problem, say conservationists and historians, who argue that Venice's image is cheapened by travelers who zip in, snap a few photos and zip out, without appreciating the city on a deeper level.

"The city is gradually assuming the stereotype that tourists have when they are here. ... From the tangible point of view, it is being consumed, dismantled by the confrontation with the customer-oriented attitude, which says, 'You are the tourist, the client, tell us what you want and we will give it to you,"' said Pierluigi Sacco, a professor of design at Venice's University IUAV who is active in the efforts to protect Italian art cities.

[yubnub]

Originally Posted by joshsam

The Medina of Fes-al-Bali, Morocco | Pop: 156,000

I don't now about the historical number of people that lived in venice but today that's only 80.000, Fes-al-Bali is bigger...

thanks for the info, i must have missed this one somehow when i went through the earlier posts. Looks great and not so far from Europe so might be possible for me to make a trip to at some point soon

[yubnub]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Yes, there are a couple of "water towns" in the Yangtze River Delta. Besides Suzhou, smaller ones include Zhouzhuan and Wuzhen. I visited Zhujiajiao last December. It is about an hour west of Shanghai.

these look stunning, China is so full of beautiful places it always amazes me

[Steel City Suburb]

Originally Posted by dark_shadow1

Relaxed? Not with an average density of around 1 million tourists per square meter.

Sure its not that much.

But it is brilliant. More relaxed, its busy - but different.

[mcolley]

Much of downtown São Paulo is car-free. Check on these pics in my thread:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1218091

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by mcolley

Much of downtown São Paulo is car-free. Check on these pics in my thread:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1218091

What a blatant exaggeration. 12 pedestrianized streets in mostly decay-ridden areas is nothing like "much of downtown São Paulo is car-free".

Some former pedestrianized areas have been reopened to traffic as a way to encourage occupation of stores that had been idle.

[the spliff fairy]

There's a car free town in Germany, Vauban in Freiburg - technically everyone can have a car, but parking space costs you E20,000 to buy (unless youre disabled). Literally everyone bikes around the place.

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[mcolley]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

What a blatant exaggeration. 12 pedestrianized streets in mostly decay-ridden areas is nothing like "much of downtown São Paulo is car-free".

Some former pedestrianized areas have been reopened to traffic as a way to encourage occupation of stores that had been idle.

I think 12 streets is a lot. I didn't say it was a wealthy area.

[ChackM]

I don't live in a city without cars, but I will definitely love to see how life in a city like this looks like... With all the traffic rush etc. it would feel great to run away from that. For some time, anyway

[xiaoshuaige]

It has been RS Goldturned into simply a talented buff in the protection tree. This simplifies a lot of Buy WOW Gold little issues with protection paladins' needing to choose between Sanctuary and Kings for their blessing of choice. Midway through Wrath, Blessing of Sanctuary wentRuneScape Gold through a couple of changes, adding both stamina and strength scaling and thus becoming more and more like Blessing of Kings. Now, with the removal of Sanctuary as a blessing, the obvious choice for a protection paladin becomes Kings for the stamina and other stat increases. There is also the fact RuneScape Goldthat the new Blessing of Kings is the same as Mark of the Wild, giving resistance bonuses in addition to stats.

[redstone]

Kowloon Walled City

[Occit]

Some favelas or slums in latinamerica could be considered as non-cars cities (or zones of cities), generally that kind of urban places do not have road access, sometimes the access is by stairs or by sidewalks.

[redstone]

I think small towns should ban cars. Only vehicles allowed are bicycles and electrical vehicles for emergency (ambulances, police cars, fire fighting)... Air would be a lot better.

[atmada]

cities without cars means: the government provides good pedestrian way, public transportation, and clean air. Doesnt it?

[Mr Bricks]

Originally Posted by mcolley

I think 12 streets is a lot. I didn't say it was a wealthy area.

Not by European standards.

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by redstone

I think small towns should ban cars. Only vehicles allowed are bicycles and electrical vehicles for emergency (ambulances, police cars, fire fighting)... Air would be a lot better.

Small towns don't have problems with local traffic. If they do, then it is either because there is a thoroughfare crossing the city (in case you need to build a bypass out of it) or because it is a touristic spot. \

If the city is non-touristic, there is no need to ban traffic at all, unless you want to kill the city. After all, people living in small towns are those in most need of cars, unless you expect them to live in a fantasy world where they don't go outside their 20-streets limits. And it is just not feasible to put a railway line and services with a train/tram/whatever each 5 minutes in a town of a few thousand inhabitants.

If the small town is touristic, but not much, banning traffic would likely put tourists away due to lack of access. Don't take extreme examples of ski resorts that are car-free as the rule.

If the city is very touristic, then you can pedestrianize some streets and build massive parking lots on the edges of the town, and that will usually work.

[Torch]

Originally Posted by Occit

Some favelas or slums in latinamerica could be considered as non-cars cities (or zones of cities), generally that kind of urban places do not have road access, sometimes the access is by stairs or by sidewalks.

Are the letters in that picture for real, or is this just a simple photoshop trick?
Because it would be impressive.

[crystal8es]

I am a newbie here and just wanna say Hi to everyone. I am Crystal from Louisiana, US.


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[Huti]

@Vauban---

[חבר1.0]

Tel Aviv--- a city without cars (metro area= 3.5 million)

(From the thread in my signature)

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