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Urgent Action Needed to End Our Love Affair with Cars, Report Finds

posted by martyb on Tuesday April 30 2019, @01:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the bipedal-locomotion dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

The authors are calling on national and local governments to set targets for the proportion of trips made on foot, by bicycle and by public transport, including national targets of:

  • Doubling the proportion of trips walked to 25 per cent by 2050.
  • Doubling the proportion of cycling trips in each of the next decades, with the ultimate goal of 15 per cent of all trips being on bicycles by 2050.
  • Increasing the proportion of all trips by public transport to 15 per cent by 2050.

The report's authors further recommend:

  • The government develop a national promotion and education campaign to persuade people to walk or cycle to schools and work-places
  • That investment is made in liveable cities and creating urban environments designed for people, rather than cars
  • That new regulations are introduced to make walking and cycling safer

The report prominently cites health concerns as a key reason to not drive, because people need to exercise more. Is it a tacit acknowledgement of electric vehicles' (EVs) imminent takeover of global car fleets?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @08:46AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 30 2019, @08:46AM (#836583)

    It was not until after WWII when Eisenhower wanted to copy the autobahn he had seen in Germany that America built its interstate highway system, but America was quite completely industrialized, modern, and atomic powered by then.

    And like a typical American, he can't even copy something that is well designed already. In Germany, you don't have highways down middle of the city and no way to get through the city in some other way. In German cities, you can walk to a store. In a German city, you have access to bike paths... actually in Germany in general. In Germany, the roads are smaller and almost everyone rides a bike.. so drivers respect cyclists. In Germany, no one makes "suburbs" with no services or sidewalks.

    America after WWII was designed for the car, not a human. Germany, seems mostly opposite.

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