First, let's get rid of all the cars

[Ham]

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/18/paradise-life-spanish-city-banned-cars-pontevedra

Reading that article, notwithstanding that it is in the Graun really filled me with hope, it's a wonderful story. Then I thought, what would a Google News search for Pontevedra turn up? The answer, you might have guessed, is nigh on zero. A local town reported in a local paper, that's it. Maybe the Graun will open the good news story up to a wider audience but I 'm not holding my breath.

[Peter]

You're being SARKastic.

ETA:  It might be an ALDERNAte island, I'm never sure.

[Ham]

Alderney? two thousand alcoholics, clinging to a rock

[ian]

And five minutes ago I was reading about the argument over the number of parking places for a new development in town (a modest Surrey commuter town) – there's a regular bus service right outside the development, a train station two minutes walk away, two large supermarkets within five minutes, etc. etc. But there's not enough parking (there's never enough parking). For a town mostly served by a busy road that takes people somewhere else.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think the key is not car culture, because that's very similar everywhere, but the different ways in which local administration works.

[Ham]

Not car culture? really? Good things happen when you ban cars from a city centre not reported anywhere but the Graun basically because it isn't newsworthy.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The key to why it has happened in a Spanish town but not here.

[Riggers]

Interesting too from that article, are the subsequent health benefits:
CO2 emissions are down 70%, nearly three-quarters of what were car journeys are now made on foot or by bicycle, and, while other towns in the region are shrinking, central Pontevedra has gained 12,000 new inhabitants. Also, withholding planning permission for big shopping centres has meant that small businesses – which elsewhere have been unable to withstand Spain’s prolonged economic crisis – have managed to stay afloat.

[ian]

Yet in the UK, small businesses are the ones typically at the forefront of campaigns against pedestrianization, traffic restrictions and the like. Because if people can't park right outside, they won't visit their shops. Of course, the opposite is true, rather than encourage local shopping, people just drive to a megastore anyway. The only 'local' businesses a parking and traffic free-for-all encourage is endless convenience stores and fast food takeaways. This is demonstrated time and time again. But no one believes it, even as they drive down a high street that consists entirely of convenience stores, fast food outlets, and charity pop-ups.

[grams]

I’ve seen it suggested that the opposition is because the *business owners* want to park outside their store.

It certainly squares with my experience that parking outside small shops in many places seems to be permanently occupied, thus I’d never try to drive to them anyway.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Interesting too from that article, are the subsequent health benefits:
CO2 emissions are down 70%, nearly three-quarters of what were car journeys are now made on foot or by bicycle, and, while other towns in the region are shrinking, central Pontevedra has gained 12,000 new inhabitants. Also, withholding planning permission for big shopping centres has meant that small businesses – which elsewhere have been unable to withstand Spain’s prolonged economic crisis – have managed to stay afloat.

I wonder what's happened to the other one quarter of what were car journeys. Perhaps they're made by bus but I expect a lot of them have turned out to be unnecessary.

[Kim]

Perhaps that includes through journeys that are now either not happening because there isn't a route to induce the traffic, or have been displaced to the periphery.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Could well be, but I reckon that in some cases people are making fewer journeys. Either they're bundling several journeys into one, eg doing all the shopping in one go, or they've found they were making trivial journeys without real purpose.

[Kim]

Most car owners I know make a lot of trivial localish journeys without real purpose.  Instead of planning properly and making a single trip, they jump in the car and go out again and again.  The main thing that limits this behaviour seems to be parking, either having to pay at the destination, or risk of giving up a convenient parking space on a busy residential street.

Obviously all bicycle journeys come with a built-in purpose

[quixoticgeek]

Yet in the UK, small businesses are the ones typically at the forefront of campaigns against pedestrianization, traffic restrictions and the like. Because if people can't park right outside, they won't visit their shops.

This is true. If I can't park my bike such that I can see it from the window while I shop, I'm not shopping there...

J