Climate change: we can reclaim cities from the car without inconveniencing people
Richard Kingston, University of Manchester and Ransford A. Acheampong, University of Manchester Since the 1920s, the car has revolutionised the way people travel; eliminating the constraints of distance while offering a personal, fast and convenient way to get from one place to another. Cities have been designed and built to make space for cars, and many cities which existed centuries before the advent of the car reshaped their streets to accommodate it. The car, along with investments in major road infrastructure, has allowed people to live further away from city centres. The result has been that residential settlements can sprawl out over large areas – a perfect example is US suburbia. Yet people’s dependence on cars poses a major threat to public health and the environment. It is estimated that there are more than a billion cars in the world. As well as driving up energy use, contributing to more than 70% of C0₂ emissions in the transport sector and reducing air qual...