Vauban, a suburb of Freiburg, near the French and Swiss borders, has gone ‘car-free,’ according to The New York Times. Except for the main street, where the tram to downtown Freiburg runs, cars can’t be used for travel, and now bikes are the primary mode of transportation. Car ownership is allowed, but cars can only be parked in large garages at the outskirts of the community. “As a result, 70 percent of Vauban’s families do not own cars, and 57 percent sold a car to move here.” Vauban, home to 5,500 residents in a square mile, is seen as part of the ’smart planning’ movement. The community has been car-free since 2006.
The lack of cars means that stores are walking or biking distance. “In this new approach, stores are placed a walk away, on a main street, rather than in malls along some distant highway.” This means pollution levels in the community may be lower, and the CO2 emissions from area’s automobiles has also fallen dramatically.
The New York Times explains that other communities in the U.S. have been exploring similar models. “In California, the Hayward Area Planning Association is developing a Vauban-like community called Quarry Village on the outskirts of Oakland, accessible without a car to the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and to the California State University’s campus in Hayward.” Although not mentioned in the article, a number of island communities in the U.S., including Nantucket and Fire Island on the east coast, have limited or banned car use all together for years.
In the U.K., urban planners and regulators have reformed urban planning and now discourage car use by requiring new development to be accessible by public transit. A 2001 UK Government planning document, PPG 13, said: “Development comprising jobs, shopping, leisure and services should not be designed and located on the assumption that the car will represent the only realistic means of access for the vast majority of people.” According to The New York Times, shopping malls, fast-food restaurants and housing compounds “have been refused planning permits based on the new British regulations.”
[...] of people don’t even own a car, and use bikes and public transportation to get around (see earlier post on Vauban, Germany). Also, NYC and Chicago were lauded from their green [...]