Off the road: Imagining car-free cities

Many cities are now seeking to address what urban planners call “an unequal distribution of road space”, implementing policies to discourage car use and promoting more sustainable alternatives. In the last three years, the number of areas in European cities where traffic is limited rose by 40 percent. But the car-free revolution hasn’t come without backlash. What if the tranquility that comes with limited traffic benefits a few at the expense of others? Can low-traffic areas be socially just?

Brussels: the transit traffic strategy 

Brussels is the latest European capital to have joined the car-free revolution, launching a new traffic plan last August, aimed at reducing the number of cars driving through the inner city 

“The plan is about giving more road space to pedestrians, cyclists, buses or the tram,” says Bart Dhondt, councillor for mobility for the city of Brussels. But that doesn’t mean the Belgian capital has decided to wage war on cars, Dhondt insists. Just some cars, those traversing the city center even though the journey did not begin or end within it. In other words, transit traffic, accounting for 40 percent of Brussels’ road traffic.

Confining cars to the outer ring road hasn’t been that difficult. Authorities have intentionally turned Brussels into a maze few want to venture into. Streets reclaimed by pedestrians, two-way roads turned into one-way streets, bike lanes sprouting up: all part of effort to discourage drivers from traversing the city. 

London: low-traffic neighbourhoods

London has adopted a different, but somewhat similar strategy: keeping cars out from residential areas. “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods” consist of different motor filters. Only pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, buses and emergency