Hi,
I like many others who live in London (and perhaps any major city on the
planet), find increasingly that the agenda of urban life is being hijacked
by all-things transport. There is a congestion charging scheme being
operated by London Government to discourage non-essential car journeys. I
just saw in the news that the transport secretary wishes to introduce some
more similar schemes.
I am not a transport planner but I do (rather forced to) wonder about
whether roads will ultimately suffocate and strangulate the cities.
It may seem silly and perhaps even a scene from a sci-fi movie but I wonder
if it would be an idea to start to move personal and commercial vehicular
transport (except non-polutting ones) in big cities underground? It does
mean having to drive in miles of high speed tunnels (which could be made
entertaining with some nice sponsored lighting effects), some considerable
investment, and engineering innovation but in my simple logic this would mean:
- end of the charm in driving, which I reckon is one of the main culprits of
the driving culture,
- reduction in traffic-related deaths,
- reclaimation of the land for new purposes e.g public transports like trams
or perhaps just patches of trees and parks,
- reduction in pollution(?)
- above all, having the freedom to walk freely on the land :-)
The nearest example of this one that comes to my mind is that of Seattle,
which has several tunnelled parts in the city centre area.
S.
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