Lets face it – most of us wouldn’t know how to get to places without a car. Before our times at University Park, I would say most of us were utterly dependent on using a car to get around. Without them, the scale of the world seems to grow every mile we commute without their aid. For the past seven decades, car ownership hasn’t only become a means of transportation but has simultaneously been recast into a status symbol, an illustration of wealth, and a “ticket” to being a member of society. As of now (at least in Texas, where I’m from, and the majority of western states), the social norm is that pedestrians aren’t pedestrians by choice, but by their financial inability to afford anything – that these people walking on the side of the road were nothing more than a nuisance.

 This isn’t me just highlighting the social stigma between homelessness and pedestrians in the western half of the states – in several other countries cars are used as a status symbol just as much, or more than in the US. However, what if there were places that debarred cars? In today’s post-industrial age, it’s hard to imagine a landscape void of cars, except perhaps for deserts or the most primitive corners of the world. But these places exist and thrive throughout many of the world’s richest countries. Today’s blog will discuss some of the characteristics and benefits of car-free neighborhoods and streets, where the noisy, polluting status symbols aren’t needed. 

If you’ve glanced or read any of my previous posts, you’ll know the political origins of today’s current car-centric infrastructure that fundamentally encourages society to solely use a car, and provides very few other options of transportation (you east coasters actually have it good, due to your cities being designed before the car, thus giving you other options of transit). 

The noise produced by these streets are minimal, considering how many people are packed into one space. Besides the decreased noise, the walking or biking required for traveling these streets doubles as exercise, adding an extra benefit. Not only this, but its been shown that supply chain trucks arent stuck in traffic as much, thus reducing the cost of goods. 

Anyways, a significant number of car-free streets throughout the world can be found in older parts of cities where they were preserved for their many benefits. If you ever travel down one, the first thing you’ll notice is the eerie quietness of them. When people gripe about dense urban spaces, they almost always bring up the untame noise that fills them. Although they have been historically noisier than rural areas, in today’s age, it’s not that cities are loud, it’s that cars are loud. The constant rumble of engines, the occasional horn, and (believe it or not), the contact of the wheels on the road, are what make up the majority of the noise that people love and hate so much. However, once we remove the variable of the car, that wave of noise dissipates to levels of pretty bearable quietness.