In just a few decades, kids will hopefully say: “It’s soo weird that they created massive cities and filled them up with huge cars”.
But it’s our goddamn duty to make sure they will say so. Here’s some inspiration when it comes to the open space in a city - and who owns it…
1946? Or 2025?
Same spot, 2012.
1952? Or… 2020?
Same spot, 2012.
Photo cred: Lennart af Petersens (1913-2004), and Johan Lindberg (Mitt Stockholm-bloggen)
Some interesting facts about this big, bulky, noisy, polluting fella (a.k.a the car):
- A car is parked 95% of it’s lifetime. That is 2,5m x 5m space/car.
- 50% of all car trips in Sweden are shorter than 5 kilometers, a distance that is perfectly done by bike. (And this percentage is probably even higher in US/Australia/Canada)
- In Stockholm, traffic counts show that the cars take up 60 percent of the space between houses, although there are five times more pedestrians.
- Since the 60’s, the city planning has had the car as norm (duh).
Pic: Gehl Architects
It’s about time the car step down from it’s throne. It might have been a creative (and oh so naive) idea in the 60’s when not everyone had a car, and it sure felt fun for a while, but come on, it’s 2012 now and car oriented city planning just isn’t that sexy anymore.
In the meantime: Keep talking about this and ride on. Be a living ad for what the opinion really wants. And remember: There are not too many cyclists in Stockholm/Sydney/New York/Whatever, there is to little space for them.
