Making a City Centre Car-Free and Its Effects

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Table of Contents

Stakeholders Involved
Environmental Impacts
Conclusion
Minimising Challenges
References

In London, Paris, Seoul and other cities around the world a policy of a car-free city is now being developed. Politicians and urbanists offer various options for banning cars in an urban environment in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and free up more space for pedestrians. The definition of a car-free city varies depending on the city. Some regulations provide for low-emission zones or a ban on diesel transport, which is a source of air pollution.

Instead of traditional gasoline and diesel cars, it is planned to use public and electric transport, metro and bicycles. In other car -free cities, a pricing system has been introduced — the owners of motor cars are charged for driving during rush hours, in crowded urban areas or for transport that violates emission standards. Another option of a car-free city is restricting the movement of cars with certain numberplates: on some days it is forbidden to drive cars with even numbers, on others — with odd numbers.

Stakeholders Involved

First of all, stakeholders involved are car manufacturers who will incur significant losses. Also, reducing the number of cars will negatively affect companies servicing cars, such as auto parts manufacturers, or car maintenance workshops. Stakeholders involved are also citizens who will receive significant benefits in the form of cleaner air and reduced traffic congestion. Environmental defenders can be considered as stakeholders, since making a city car-free will reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere. This paper analyzes the economic, environmental and social consequences of making a city car-free, and also provides recommendations on maximizing benefits and minimizing challenges caused by changes.

Impacts Related to Employment

The negative consequences include the reduction of employees servicing private cars. First of all, workers of car dealerships, such as car sales managers, will suffer. Also, making a city car-free is likely to lead to a massive reduction in car service employees who were engaged in the diagnosis of automotive malfunctions and vehicle maintenance. However, new places for employment will also appear on the labor market. Thus, the need for specialists conducting an assessment of economic and environmental factors, a survey of highways, and an assessment of the ecological class of technical means will increase. There will also be a high demand for employees performing environmental certification of transport.

Costs to the Taxpayer

Owners of personal cars will be forced to pay an increased transport tax, which will act as one of the incentives to make them refuse to use a car. The amount of car tax for the year will increase in proportion to the environmental class to which the vehicle belongs. In addition, the environmental tax for car owners will be reinforced. However, for people who have completely switched to public transport and refused to use personal, the amount of taxes will be reduced. They will need to pay an increased tax on the repair of the roadway and maintenance of transport. Despite the increase in the city tax, taking into account the absence of the need to operate a personal car, the amount of tax will not become unaffordable for citizens.

Impacts on Businesses

Businesses focused on servicing private cars and manufacturing then will be at risk of bankruptcy. Due to the reduction in the number of cars, they will lose a significant part of the customer base. First of all, these are tire fitting businesses, car washes, taxis and auto parts sellers. However, businesses specializing in the production of alternative methods of transportation, such as bicycles or scooters, will make a profit. Due to the trend of switching to more environmentally friendly modes of transport and abandoning cars, their products will become more popular. There will also be a positive impact on businesses producing cars that run on electricity and do not produce harmful emissions into the atmosphere.

Environmental Impacts

Impacts on the City’s Carbon Footprint and Sustainability

The refusal to use a private car will reduce the carbon footprint of various drive configurations — gasoline engine, diesel, gas engine, and others. Also, city sustainability will be improved by reducing fuel production, during which environmentally harmful substances are also released. Reducing the carbon footprint generated by conveyor assembly and maintenance of personal cars will cause beneficial economic consequences. Each stage of car production directly or indirectly contributes to the production of carbon dioxide (Baehler & Rérat, 2020). Decreasing emissions from fuel combustion during the manufacture and operation of cars will have a positive impact on the environment and city sustainability.

Impacts on Pollution and Climate

The increase in temperature is proportional to the increase in the number of cars in those places of the planet where climatic cataclysms occur. Climatic cataclysms are created in these territories by intensive industrial and economic activity of people, including the use of cars. The number of cars has exceeded 2 billion, produce such an amount of warm steam and carbon dioxide that the atmosphere in places with large concentrations of cars overheats and humidifies (Baehler & Rérat, 2020). Reducing the number of cars on the continent will lower the overheating of the air and terrain, preventing the accumulation of this overheating and creating conditions for the development of a thermal catastrophe. Decreasing the number of cars will assist to slow down the overall warming of the climate, as it will weaken thermal pollution caused by the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Impacts of Construction Work

Construction work will be associated with a significant redevelopment of the city. Parking spaces will be removed, highways will be replaced with bike lanes and central roads will be closed from cars. The operation of road construction machinery, lifting equipment, other mechanisms and special equipment will have an adverse impact on the environment. However, the impact will be temporary, and its duration will not have a significant timeframe. Cooperation with organizations that are professionally engaged in engineering and environmental surveys will help minimize the adverse effects of construction.

Public Response to the Changes

Part of the population will positively perceive the changes: this is especially true for those who commute to work every day and suffer from traffic jams. People who are concerned about the environment will also encourage changes. Nevertheless, citizens who need a car to travel, have elderly and disabled relatives, or children, may be dissatisfied. A personal car is convenient for shopping and cargo transportation, it makes it possible to plan routes – opponents of making car-free cities can be guided by these arguments (Hammad, 2019). The need to change people’s consumer habits can result in active protests if changes are introduced too quickly and harshly.

Changes to the Demographic of the Area

Changes to the demographic of the area will be primarily due to the fact that it is not convenient for all citizens to use public transport. At the moment, a large number of people with disabilities live in the centers of large cities, since the most qualified medical care can be obtained there. However, most of the public transport is not fully equipped to move people with limited mobility. Thus, due to the difficulties associated with the difficulty of getting to work or study in the absence of a personal car, the number of citizens with special needs will decrease in the demographic composition of the city.

Changes In Crime Rate and Prevalent Types of Crime

The total number of thefts is dominated by encroachments on the personal property of citizens. One of the most frequent objects of theft are cars; both burglary and theft are common. Illegal possession of a car is most often carried out in order to sell them. Car thieves often act in organized groups. One opens and starts the car, the other drives it, the third interrupts the numbers and fakes documents or disassembles the car for spare parts, the fourth sells. Due to the reduction in the number of personal cars, the number of car thieves may decrease. However, as the number of people using public transport increases, there is a risk of more frequent thefts in the subway, buses, etc. First of all, these are pocket thefts of wallets, bags, and credit cards.

Conclusion

From an economic point of view, the rejection of private cars will entail certain difficulties for a large number of businesses and many taxpayers. However, at the same time, the transition to eco-friendly modes of transportation will cause the emergence of new vacancies in the labor market and demand for alternative means of transportation. Making city car-free will bring huge environmental benefits: it will reduce the carbon footprint and harmful emissions into the atmosphere. The social consequences of abandoning personal transport can be called contradictory. The changes will have a large number of supporters, to whom they will bring improvements in life. People experiencing difficulties when using public transport – families with children, elderly relatives and the disabled – are likely to express dissatisfaction.

Improving the Environmental Friendliness of Public Transport

One of the possible ways to improve the environmental situation in the urban environment is to improve the designs of public transport cars. Preference can be given not to buses, but to electric trains and trams. A complete transition to ecological transport will slow down global warming by a quarter (Farda & Balijepalli, 2018). It is necessary to develop various types of green public transport to make the environment even cleaner and safer.

Business Development Assistance

It is possible to stimulate a developing business for the production of electric scooters through the development and adoption of state programs and measures to support entrepreneurship. Thus, more jobs will be created, and the economy will not suffer from losses in the automotive sector.

Minimising Challenges

Organizing An Accessible Environment

To ensure the availability of transport infrastructure and public passenger transport services, it is necessary to work towards ensuring the availability of public transport rolling stock. The methodology of organizing transport services for disabled people should be based on an integrated approach. It is necessary to identify and eliminate barriers to the movement of people with special needs.

Countering Vehicle Thefts

It is necessary to increase the number of cameras in public transport in order to track the path from where the criminals came from, and in which vehicle they move. It will also be needed to improve the quality of technical equipment and video recording, to ensure timely cleaning of lenses.

References

Baehler, D., & Rérat, P. (2020). Between ecological convictions and practical considerations: Profiles and motivations of residents in car-free housing developments in Germany and Switzerland. Geographica Helvetica, 75(15), 169-181.

Farda, M., & Balijepalli, C. (2018). Exploring the effectiveness of demand management policy in reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution: Car-free day and odd-even plate measures for Bandung city in Indonesia. Case Studies on Transport Policy, 6(4), 577-590.

Hammad, A. M. (2019). Benefits of cities’ CBD pedesterianization and reutilization as people places: Towards a car-free model for Cairo’s CBD. Engineering Research Journal, 1(41), 215-226.

Olander, S. (2007).) Stakeholder impact analysis in construction project management. Construction Management and Economics, 25(3), 277-287.

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