Ever since the first production car rolled off the assembly
line more than 100 years ago, our love affair with automobiles has
grown and grown. In countries like the UK, France, Italy and Germany
there are now around 5 vehicles for every 10 people. In the USA, Australia and New Zealand, the number is higher still.
But, after a century of the automobile playing a central
part in our lives, we’re starting to see a shift toward alternative
forms of transport. If this trend continues, the car’s domination of
global transport could soon come to a spluttering end.
Traffic jam in Beijing
Hidden cost of cars
With the cost of electric vehicles set to plummet
over the next decade, many car firms now admit that the future is an
electric one. But will this be enough? Shouldn’t we also be asking
ourselves if we need so many cars in the first place?
If we could flick a switch and turn every fossil fuelled
car into an electric one, lungs across the planet would breathe a sigh
of relief as toxic emissions dropped (as long as the electricity used
was from clean energy sources).
But this wouldn’t address the problem of just how wasteful a car dominated transport system is.
In 2016, more than 72 million new cars
hit the road. Manufacturing such a giant quantity of vehicles year on
year uses vast quantities of steel, aluminium, copper, glass, rubber,
and other raw materials.
It’s a great environmental cost, considering the majority of these vehicles sit idle 95% of the time.
Parked cars take up a vast amount of space, too. In urban areas in Los Angeles county, an estimated 14% of land – 200 square miles – is dedicated to parking.
Changing attitudes
Though progress is often slow, city planners and
politicians are gradually waking up to the fact that when cities offer
safe and affordable alternatives to cars, we start to travel
differently.
Cyclists in Copenhagen
More and more young people are choosing bicycles, buses and trains over owning a car out of the sheer cost. In Berlin, it’s public transport, not cars, which is the coolest way of getting around.
In Copenhagen, a city that has a long held reputation for being bike-friendly, a whopping 62% of people choose to cycle their commute.
In the French city of Lyon, the number of cars entering the city has fallen by 20%
compared to just a decade ago. As the city’s network of bike hire
stations continues to grow, town planners are hoping for a further 20%
decline.
In London, where cycle super-highways are becoming popular, the share of journeys made by car has fallen by a quarter since 1990.
Car free days are rising in popularity in many of the
world’s largest cities, giving people a taste of what it’s like to live
with less noise, traffic and pollution. Bogota was one of the first
cities to introduce a car free day, and it’s now become so popular that
it’s been extended to a full week.
Our vision
Though the rise of electric cars should be celebrated, a
truly sustainable transport system isn’t just about ditching fossil fuel
vehicles.
It’s about building more cycle lanes, and supporting
schemes to get people on bikes in the first place. It’s about
constructing roads which encourage a more diverse range of travel -
cycling, electric scooters and cargo bikes - instead of so heavily
favouring cars. It’s about mass transport that runs on clean energy and
is affordable and easy for everyone to use. And it’s about all of us -
citizens, politicians, and businesses - playing a part in making it
happen.
To coincide with the World Economic Forum taking place in Davos this week, Greenpeace has published Freedom to Breathe: Rethinking Urban Transport, a report that lays out our vision for the future of transport.
Richard Casson is a campaigner for Greenpeace UK
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