Current Events > Buzzfeed contributor suggests banning cars from major cities

(+) Yeah! (+)

The "Ban Assault Trucks" meme but for real.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessesinger/ban-cars

In the coming days, politicians will try to convince you that what happened on the West Side Highway in Manhattan this week was an issue of terrorism, immigration, or religion. But just like the plague of mass shootings is a gun problem, the thousands of people killed by cars as they walk our streets every year is a car problem.

A gun lobbyist would typically step in right about now to ask whether those who demand gun control after mass shootings also want to ban cars after events like this week. To which I say: Hell yes. Cars dont belong on the streets of big cities, and we should do everything in our power to get rid of them.

You cant stop crazy. But you can reduce the number of people allowed to drive their 4,000 pound machines into city parks, along city beaches, past playgrounds, and alongside the sidewalks of the most pedestrian-packed places in the nation. If we banned cars from every city in the US tomorrow, we would stop vehicular terrorism overnight and save thousands of lives.

When a man shot and killed 58 people at a Las Vegas music festival last month, no one pointed to the lack of bulletproof vests worn by concertgoers, because the problem was clearly the stacks of weapons stockpiled in his hotel room.

The truck that was used to kill eight people on Tuesday is no different, except unlike firearms, cars are still welcomed unconditionally in every city in the US. Gun ownership has its own constitutional guarantee there's no equivalent for cars but imagine if cities embraced guns the way they do vehicles: Free gun storage outside your apartment! A designated lane in the park for concealed carriers!

More than 40,000 Americans were killed by cars in 2016 the equivalent of a fully-loaded Boeing 747 falling out of the sky once every three days. Its more than the 33,000 annual gun deaths, and more than the 20,000-plus people killed by synthetic opioids that year. Half of those automobile fatalities occurred in urban areas; about 6,000 of them were pedestrians.

This happened in the middle of the night, but if that drunk had been a day-drinker, I have no doubt the death toll would have been as high as it was on Tuesday.

After Eric was killed, the city of New York put up a few plastic bollards along the bike path, as though this was not a car problem, but a bollard problem. On Tuesday, Saipov drove right over those plastic bollards.

Vehicular terrorism is still a minuscule part of the overall picture of pedestrians being killed by cars. But it is a rising tide, with automobiles used as weapons this year alone in Charlottesville, Barcelona, London, and Stockholm. But before terrorism experts start calling for a radical redesign of our security culture and the NYPD permanently surrounds Trump Tower with dump trucks, lets make this easy: Ban cars in New York City. Boom, you saved all those lives.

Of course, the cities we have today could not ban cars tomorrow. No current public transportation system functions well enough to carry an entire city population. Not everyone can walk or ride a bike. Too many taxi drivers would be out of work.

We are not ready, but the car-free city is being tested in bits and pieces around the world. We should learn from all of them, and apply those lessons as soon as possible.

Oslo plans to ban all cars from its city center by 2019. Madrid has a goal of 500 car-free acres by 2020. In Paris and Mexico City, people are restricted from driving into the city center on certain days based on the age of their cars or the number on their license plates. Inside Barcelonas superblocks, all car traffic that isnt local is banned. Over 75 miles of roads in Bogot, Colombia, close to traffic for a full day every week.

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ThePrinceFish posted...

Of course, the cities we have today could not ban cars tomorrow. No current public transportation system functions well enough to carry an entire city population. Not everyone can walk or ride a bike. Too many taxi drivers would be out of work.

We are not ready, but the car-free city is being tested in bits and pieces around the world.

Sounds reasonable.
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This is basically like saying "Gamefaqs user says [blank]" and trying to get people to respond seriously.

NewerMernardi posted...

This is basically like saying "Gamefaqs user says [blank]" and trying to get people to respond seriously.

If a GameFaqs user sat down and spent hours writing a massive essay about how we should ban cars, they would be mocked fairly relentlessly.
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ThePrinceFish posted...

NewerMernardi posted...

This is basically like saying "Gamefaqs user says [blank]" and trying to get people to respond seriously.

If a GameFaqs user sat down and spent hours writing a massive essay about how we should ban cars, they would be mocked fairly relentlessly.

That could be written in 20 minutes if someone is determined enough lmao.

There's no reason why anyone needs own an automatic car.
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Were_Wyrm posted...

There's no reason why anyone needs own an automatic car.

Yeah there is. If everyone had one, there'd be basically no stopped traffic.

We could certainly do with less cars in cities like nyc. Traffic and parking is a goddamn nightmare, when it comes to that city less is more.
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Makeveli_lives posted...

We could certainly do with less cars in cities like nyc. Traffic and parking is a goddamn nightmare, when it comes to that city less is more.

If mass transit didn't utterly suck, the alleged problem would solve itself.

It's not as crazy as it sounds, as there would be a lot of potential benefits, not just in stopping certain acts of terrorism (a dumb reason on its own), but in terms of health (pollution, noise, exercise, etc.), space for pedestrians, cyclists and public transport, among other benefits.

It's something to strive for I think, but it certainly isn't going to happen overnight.

Also, when people say this, I don't think they mean a complete ban, but just in city centers and other hot-spots. See the third paragraph of this article, for example.

sounds like they played democracy 3 and thought they had a genius idea
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luigi13579 posted...

Also, when people say this, I don't think they mean a complete ban, but just in city centers and other hot-spots. See the third paragraph of this article, for example.

Surround the city with a ring of parking lots, and make the busses not suck, and it's a viable idea.

Doesn't London or Paris put a pretty hefty fee on cars entering the city?
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Antifar posted...

Doesn't London or Paris put a pretty hefty fee on cars entering the city?

Yes. At least London anyway.
I'm pretty sure there's a large portion of Paris where cars aren't allowed at all.

The more practical and immediate solution is putting up physical barriers, like dragon teeth
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