A huge difference.
Imagine what it will look like when we ban diesel from urban & suburban areas!
Imagine what it will look like when we ban diesel from urban & suburban areas!
(Getting rid of all cars is probably not possible, but 90+% of them aren’t necessary, could be parked at the city’s edge and I’m pretty sure most city residents would agree after a year or two it is better that way.)
When I commuted by public transit, It was mostly not directly visible to me, especially when I took the train and just bypassed all the traffic. But riding my bike, I see just how clogged up the roads get, and just how much the flow gets disturbed by people blocking intersections and creating gridlock.
The vast majority of these cars are only transporting a single occupant, even the huge 7-seat SUVs. The amount of wasted space is simply astounding.
If we could keep even just the city centers free of cars, there would be so much more space available for pedestrians and cyclists and city life. Sure, allow some commercial traffic, such as deliveries, tradesmen with jobs to do in the city, buses and taxi services.
Ban all private car traffic, and only hand out temporary permits for transporting home bulky objects or similar short-term undertakings. Price it so that people won't just buy one every single day. Maybe set a limit on how many permits are allowed per month, to prevent the wealthy from gaming the system.
Quality of life would increase massively.
Latest data I could easily find (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_congestion_charge) was that after 10 years of operation it reduced traffic by 10% (ten). A report from 2014 said that traffic levels are now close to pre-congestion-charge levels (https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/cc-changes-march-2014...). The public buses and privately-run taxis are everywhere and are significant causes of traffic in my anecdotal experience (e.g. bus blocking the road waiting for someone to finish talking to the driver, bus blocking junction, buses blocking road waiting to get into bus stop where 5 other buses already are waiting to pick-up or put-down, taxi-drivers stopping in illegal places to drop people off or doing illegal u-turns etc etc. Whats worse is the buses are diesel and pump out loads of fumes from their heavy diesel engines. Bus ridership is falling (http://www.mayorwatch.co.uk/londons-bus-ridership-is-falling...) yet we still have to put up with them and their diesel.
tl;dr - charging doesn't work at the £10-20/day prices (equivalent to 3.6 to 6.7 Big Macs on the BigMacIndex a day to drive into london)
I guess it might work if the fees go up an order of magnitude.
I have a sneaking suspicion that ICE cars have a less than wonderful impact on insects too, but that's just a feeling.
I suppose the big one I'm waiting for is electric motorbikes - I've whinged them on HN beforehand, but those buggers can be heard from blocks away, waking or annoying thousands - tens of thousands! - of people in built-up urban areas.
(ed. spelling)
I know they won't kill the tire/wind sounds, but if they break the mental association of loud == fast == cool for men, it could be a game changer.
No more ridiculously loud acceleration from 'modded' cars and bikes...
Also heavy trucks / buses under acceleration can be loud too, hopefully those'll go away as well.
Some of which are already technically illegal, its just a law that's not enforced well.