Electric vehicles (EVs) can help, but should we even have cars in cities?
But other forms of pollution can be just as harmful and way more annoying.
“A way to lower this is by getting more people to switch to EVs.
Denys Nevozhai / Unsplash
MSN confirms that EVs produce very little sound at low speeds because of the absence of internal combustion engines.
It’s More Than Engine Noise
Car noise isn’t just about engine noise.
It also depends on the car’s shape and road surface.
Nextbike/Unsplash
Remove cars from cities entirely.
Making Cities Car-Free
In the US, especially out west, cities are built around cars.
Changing that might not be an overnight task, but it’s possible.
Gabriella Clare Marino / Unsplash
There are two parts to any plan.
One is to offer good alternatives to cars.
Public transit, bike lanes, bike sharing schemes, and infrastructure favor people, not cars.
Often, these two ideas go hand in hand.
And it’s already happening.
Paris has been closing city streets to cars over the past decade and, despite protests, is succeeding.
Mayor Anne Hidalgo plans toturn it into a 15-minute citywhere everything you need is within easy reach.
Barcelonahas its “superblocks,“which turn 9x9 sections of its gridded Eixample neighborhoods into traffic-calmed islands.
And there’s everybody’s favorite example, Copenhagen.
Thirty years ago, Copenhagenwas just as traffic-choked and car-blightedas any other city.
All it takes is a will and constant improvements.
Car-free cities are a bit like legal weed.
It seems impossible for decades, and then it seems to happen everywhere, all at once.
Let’s get a move on.
