Reflection 1 - Can a city really ban cars from its streets?
This first reflection will cover the article by BBC. The article is about the concept of having the urban parts of a city completely free from private vehicle and how the german city of Hamburg has initiated plans to be 40% car free within the next 20 years. They also cover the fact that a car takes up to three times as much energy to transport a person than a train would do. 1,668 BTU compared to 4,218 BTU where BTU stands for British Thermal Units per person and mile.
The BTU for traveling with airplane was 1970 twice as high compared to cars but by packing the people together more tightly this has changed. To be able to have the same BTU the car needs to have at least 2.3 people on average each trip rather than the current average of 1.38.
Hamburg is not the first city to have this goal of less cars in the urban areas but it is an ongoing trend among cities around the world. Many european cities introduce a congestion fee to make it more expensive to take the car during peak hours.
While the article describe the goal and gives some fact about the negative impact of cars it gives little to none input of how to solve the issue or which problem might occur. With this reflection, im going to give some thought about the value of the car as well as trying to solve the goal of how a city like Hamburg can become free from private cars in the future.
The BTU for traveling with airplane was 1970 twice as high compared to cars but by packing the people together more tightly this has changed. To be able to have the same BTU the car needs to have at least 2.3 people on average each trip rather than the current average of 1.38.
Hamburg is not the first city to have this goal of less cars in the urban areas but it is an ongoing trend among cities around the world. Many european cities introduce a congestion fee to make it more expensive to take the car during peak hours.
While the article describe the goal and gives some fact about the negative impact of cars it gives little to none input of how to solve the issue or which problem might occur. With this reflection, im going to give some thought about the value of the car as well as trying to solve the goal of how a city like Hamburg can become free from private cars in the future.
First of all we need to have a look as why the car is used and to what purpose. The main reason to take the car is, in today's society, shopping. People like to have a place to put their groceries and does not care for taking the subway with multiple bags. If i went by bicycle then i could carry even less back home. This is not really organized for doing the weekly shopping of groceries. One soution to this might be to have delivery of the things you buy to your home.
There are already stores who offer home delivery for a fee. This is ok if you buy all your groceries at the same store and have them deliver it all. However, if you go to multiply stores and buy not as much then this would be a really expensive option. My idea here is to solve this with a special delivery company where you can drop all your items at and after the day is over, they deliver it all. The different stores might have some deal that when you spend money there, then they cover a percentage of the delivery fee. The more you shop at that store, the more they cover.
The second issue with the car ban is that some cities doesn't have as developed public transportation and this would mean that it gets more and more difficult to get to the urban parts of the city. There might be elderly people who just cant go there by bicycle and this would render them more and more helpless if they need to go to a doctors appointment. There are already special transport services who can be used to help these people. If not always, just for the transition time when the public transport system is being developed to cover the entire suburban parts of the city.
The main aspect of this reflection is to illuminate the issues of car ban and how we can get there. However, this can't be done over a night and we need to account for the problems which arise before we ban the only solution.
The introduction is very good since you wrote what the article was about and you also had some good and important facts about BTU. You also had great thoughts and reflections about this subject and the examples you mentioned are very realistic and i can relate to that. For example the grocery part and your solution to that are very efficient and might work. I like that you present a problem and then a solution for it. Good job!
SvaraRaderaI like that you write about the value of the car and solutions. We need to see the problems by banning cars too.
SvaraRaderaI can agree with you that it would be hard for people doing their weekly shopping, doing this trip without a car. It’s not fun or easy going shopping with buss and if you are going to buy a lot thinks (or big things). I think your idea of home delivery is good. There would be at least one travel by car less.
Local transportation is very important and if we want to decrease they use of cars we need to develop it. Like you wrote there are people who would be very helpless if they couldn’t use their car. Like the elderly. I know that in some cities you can book transportation especially for hospital visits. This is something that should exist everywhere.
But what about bigger families? A family with let’s say 4 children that needs to be dropped off at different schools and activities. At which age would you let you child use the buss/subway by themselves to go to practice at night downtown? This is something that depends on parents and child but also in what kind of city you live in. Sure parents can go together and car-pool but might not always work. A car is very convenient go get the children where you want them.
Just published double, the comment above is from me. But i couldn't remove that one,
SvaraRaderaJust delete and i will tidy up later.
Radera