There are many reasons why cars and other private vehicles should, on the whole, be banned from the urban environment. Here are a few of them:
- The expense of road maintenance
- The large number of traffic fatalities that could be avoided
- Safer roads for bicycles
- Less crowded roads for ambulances, fire engines, police vehicles, and other essential vehicles
- More room for buses
- Encouraging walking from place to place, which in turn helps curb obesity, heart disease, and diabetes
- Encouraging community building
- Less noise and light pollution
- Less carbon dioxide generation
- Less petroleum consumption
- A more pleasant urban environment!
Other possible effects:
- Replacement of superfluous parking areas with green space and gardens
- Job creation in the areas of taxis and public transport
Many cities currently have created car-free zones. These are generally places where pedestrians have more room to move. Most privately owned cars are an inefficient way to travel, and are generally expensive to own and operate, consuming large amounts of petroleum products and other resources. They are little more than status symbols for most car owners.
Disability
For the few people who do need a vehicle to move around and can't necessarily walk to a bus stop, public vehicles such as subsidised taxis could replace cars, and once the roads are clearer, bus stops could become more frequent and bus service could become much faster. We agree that any plan to lessen car traffic should always take the least mobile into account. However, private cars don't aid all disabled people anyway, as those who are hearing and visually impaired are not allowed to own driving licenses and are often harmed by the presence of traffic.