LPT* (Lightweight Portable Transport) is on the rise and so is the Earth’s temperature. The idea: Just take a few long roads or routes in a city and make them car-free. At first on weekends, using road blocks, and later perhaps keep them permanently car-free. Simple, cheap, effective, and completely reversible. The pictures below are mostly of Taipei, but this idea could be used in almost any city.
Future additions as per ‘the urban flow plan’ (see HERE)
What about the residents parking?
Residents would be given free parking nearby, compensation or special access to a side lane along the road on condition they drive below 5mph. Electronic ID could automatically open the gate or barrier if there is one.
What about all the cars that need the road to drive on? This just means the adjacent roads will become busier!
Only temporarily. Over time building more roads and car lanes usually increases car traffic (https://doi.org/10.7922/G22805Z9) while giving more road space to bicycles and pedestrians improves traffic.
(https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/research/common-misconceptions-about-active-travel-investment/)
This is called induced demand and makes sense when you think about it. As nearby roads have more cars they become less pleasant to drive along so less people will. On the other hand if people have far more pleasant and safer LPT journeys as an option some of them will make that switch.
It’s also worth noting that in the early phase roads nearby the Greenway are likely to have less cyclists and others on LPT allowing more space for drivers in that respect.
What about emergency service vehicles and delivery vehicles?
They would be given special access (electronic ID could automatically open the gate or barrier if there is one). It’s highly likely that small lightweight delivery vehicles would emerge rapidly.
I don’t believe this can be done.
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” (George Bernard Shaw)
In many places around the world various roads have been made car free and the feedback generally has been very good. See HERE and HERE for examples. The only addition with this plan is to devote the road to LPT rather than just give it to pedestrians alone. As technology improves and transport tools become lighter, smaller, safer and more efficient, and as cities become taller and more densely populated this is just one of those things that will need to happen anyway because it makes sense. Let’s just make sure we do it right.
We also really need to do this to allow people to avoid enclosed spaces together and give them safe, healthy travel options. Bike lanes will quickly become too busy to accommodate everyone safely. This can be done immediately with zero infrastructure!
You can get an idea of what this could be like from this video taken in Kuala Lumpur (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjOh9UtwK-w )and from this Greenway in Beijing which I regard as one of the greatest cycle-superhighways ever designed (https://youtu.be/rJ48RqwHb8s?si=-DC5Van6ljYABurF)
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*LPT (Lightweight Portable Transport) is a term coined by the Peacemaker Foundation meaning any transport tool that is small and light enough to be carried or moved by hand. Examples are bikes, skateboards, rollerskates, scooters, electric wheels (Eucs), self balancing foot scooters (Hoverboards) and Segways.
The Peacemaker Foundation 