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Comment by icebraining | Hacker News Reader

I think it's possible, but one time events are misleading, in my opinion. People use exceptional measures that are not sustainable in the long term - out here, some people even took a vacation day when our cities did the "day without cars".

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The mayor or Paris and her council are thinking of doing more of days like this one, and to extend the perimeter to include the entirety of Paris.

https://twitter.com/Anne_Hidalgo/status/648850877189627904 - very roughly "The day without cars is going to happen again in 2016 and we'd like it to be applied to the entirety of Paris"

https://twitter.com/Anne_Hidalgo/status/648851305612640256 - very roughly "We could consider days without cars happening more often. We're thinking of a monthly occurrence maybe"

The issue is one of persuasion. By having these days it gives local authorities the ability to demonstrate what is possible and makes actual implementation of smaller leaps (e.g. segregated cycle tracks) easier to swallow.

If no cars is the goal, how are segregated cycle tracks a leap in the right direction?

Cars are local optima. In a 100% car city you need a lot of car infrastructure and there is pressure to keep building more. In a 25% car city the pressure switches to maximizing other modes of transit, but as long as 98% car city is worse it's really hard for cities to make that jump.

PS: It's really a lot like social networks, dropping G+ vs Facebook is really more a question of which your friends spend time on not which one has better software.

Because it is not about "removing" the car, but making it the most difficult thing to use vs any other type of transport. For example, you can make the most direct route to a place via bike or walking, but if you use a car you have to use the ring road to get from one side of the city to the other. You enable cars to go into a city, but not through a city.

The other issue is that people equate the idea that people can walk and cycle together. This is really uncomfortable for walkers. You need to segregate space for each type of transport.

An event like this is important as an eye opener, to show the citizens that there are alternatives to the current car focused city. If enough people like the alternative version, it will be easier to make reforms to reduce traffic in the future.

Exactly, we used to have those every year in Montreal. Downtown would be completely closed for motor vehicles.

The first year, it was so refreshing, people were smiling and relaxing. Then the next year people started to get pissed as they realised blocking cars from going somewhere would not magically spawn buses and metro stations. The year after they reduced the perimeter, then the schedule, then the perimeter again, to a point where it is now rather pointless.

It is now this day of the year when you might be late at work because they closed a few blocks and put some grass and electric car demonstrations on that street that is almost always pedestrian anyways.

Yeah thats the thing. It takes me 3 times as long to get to work without a car as with one. I can live with that, because I can read on the bus and don't have to pick up kids.

If I had to be home with somebody though? Fuck that shit. Plus I hate spending time with strangers, so I much prefer being in my car rather than on public transport.

Cycle.

Takes as long as the bus, because I have to change and shower when I get there and I have to have spare clothing if/when it rains.

Besides I didn't spend a ton of money on a drivers license (they are really expensive in Denmark) to Cycle.

Try an e-bike. It should let you coast into work at 15-20mph without working a sweat. Rent one if you can to try it out.

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