How can cities discourage people from using cars?

Climate change effects are becoming more and more visible and they are starting to pose worse impacts on humans. There have been some large-scale efforts to reduce the greenhouse emissions such as the Montreal Protocol, Kyoto Protocol and the latest Paris Climate Agreement. Unfortunately, global warming is still happening and countries haven't done enough changes to reduce their emissions. Global temperatures are on the rise and it is believed that there has already been a 1.5°C increase in global average temperatures. 2°C is said to be the tipping point and this limit should not be crossed. The Paris Climate Agreement aims at keeping the temperatures under 2°C, however even if all of the promises made by each country were fulfilled, the global average temperatures are still projected to go over that the 2 degrees. So, what are some of the things countries can do to decrease their emissions? Cars are one of the biggest carbon emitters and something could be done to discourage people from using them.

One of the solutions that is becoming more popular is for cities to provide their people with free public transportation. For example, some cities in Germany are planning to offer this very soon. The current political situation in Germany isn’t too stable, however they have made the issue of climate change as one of their priorities and even under rough political circumstances, efforts are being made to reduce emissions. It turns out that Germany was one of the countries that failed to meet some deadlines to reduce pollution and they are now trying to make up for that. Allowing people to use the public transport for free is quite a radical decision as that can really change the dynamics of the city: buses and trams are likely to become really full and it could take more time for people to get off and on these means of transport because of a lot more people using them. That could affect the schedule of the public transportation and disturb people’s agendas. Germany is actually not the first country to do this, as a small city Dunkirk in France started offering free public transportation and it has worked perfectly for them. The effects of the implementation of this solution probably varies based on the size and population of the city. The logic used in Dunkirk was that the fares are already very low and they don’t really make a significant difference for the government. This decision came from the mayor, which shows that in order to help the world reduce global warming, it is very difficult for each individual to do anything and most of the decisions and changes have to come from the very top. That would set the bar to the rest of the people.

Another solution was introduced by Dubai. Dubai is a very rich city in the United Arab Emirates and they have developed autonomous mobility pods. This would be another type of public transport because people would be sharing these pods to get from one place to another. One of the best things about this is that the pods are electric and do not produce any greenhouse gases. In addition, no salaries would have to paid to drivers and all of the money could be used to charge the pods. This would be a very luxurious way to convince people not to use cars, however some of the richer cities in the world could definitely consider this option. These pods aren’t on the roads yet but Dubai’s goal is to convert 25% of all the journeys to autonomous transportation by 2030. This wouldn’t just decrease the greenhouse gas emissions but it could also help to reduce the number of traffic accidents and therefore improve the road safety.

            Lastly, one of the ways to reduce car usage would be to change the way cities are planned and designed. Instead of creating large and spread out cities, planners could focus on smaller and more compact cities. In my opinion, a person should be able to use public transportation and travel from one end of the city to the other in no more than an hour. I believe people would be willing to use public transportation as long as it is convenient and for that to happen there have to bus stops close to every residential area. Also, the buses should regularly stop at those bus stops so that people are not 30 minutes late to work or an hour early.

            Overall, it is very important for cities to look for ways to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases because at the current state of the world, the focus of city planners shouldn’t just be on the happiness of the people living in cities but a large emphasis should be put on the environment and the reduction of emissions.

Sources:

https://inhabitat.com/we-are-not-prepared-for-climate-change-scientists-issue-bleak-warning/

https://inhabitat.com/dubai-tests-first-autonomous-mobility-pods-in-the-world/

https://inhabitat.com/cities-in-germany-to-offer-free-public-transit-in-fight-against-pollution/

https://inhabitat.com/dunkirk-france-offers-free-public-transit-to-all/

http://theconversation.com/why-is-climate-changes-2-degrees-celsius-of-warming-limit-so-important-82058