Car´s are becoming every day a more unsustainable transport method. With gas prices going up, jams that make commuting long and tedious, and the hazardous effects cars have on the environment, a big percentage of society is starting to choose walking or using a bycicle to go to work or move around. However, there are a lot of cities that aren´t prepared for this change, while others look like they anticipated it a while ago.
For example, Copenhage, the first European city to determine “car-free” areas in the sixties. Nowadays, 90% of kids go to school with their parents walking or using a bike, while 50% of its inhabitants use the over 350km of bicycle to get to work.
Madrid has almost two squared kilometres of city where cars are not allowed. Fines for those who break this law are of around 100 euros. For the next couple of years, it is expecte that the whole centric area will be blocked off, and extra fines for contaminating cars or fuel-inefficinet vehicles are already being applied.
There are two other cities that avoid cars almost completely, but there´s a catch: they don´t exist yet. China is a country well known for its high population density. That´s why two city planners where hired to design a city where in just fifteen minutes you can get from one limit to the other, while only half of the almost 1,5 squared kilometres of Chengdu will allow cars once it opens in 2020.
On the other hand, Masdar in the Arab Emirates will be completely solar-energy sustainable. And, to make it even better, there won´t be cars at all. Well, actually, only special ones, which function with electricity.
