In Helsinki, less than half of households have cars. In many areas of central Helsinki, more than 60% are carless. I'd be surprised if car ownership was significantly more popular in other European cities. If there's good public transit and the city is walkable, a car is a waste of money for most people.
Typically, using the public transport in Berlin will be much quicker than taking the car.
[0] Sorry, article in German (and BZ..): http://www.bz-berlin.de/berlin/immer-mehr-autobesitzer-aber-...
I think for housing at least, building vertically is a good solution to storage of a car. Expensive of course but practical.
Underground parking for businesses would also be good, moving parking off the streets is always nice.
Unless, by moving parking away from streets you then just use it for more moving cars. That creats a very hostile and noisy environment.
Sometimes the parked cars are a nice buffer between the street and pedestrians.
Regardless, I wish our central city was nothing but walk and bicycle paths. It would be much more enjoyable and I would spend more time here.
Sure, but the current design of the sidewalk has to accommodate a car door opening at any point, as someone could park anywhere. When roads are no longer used for parking, sidewalks could be lined with a narrow strip of trees or something, with a gap every 100m for cars to load/unload passengers.