The Civic Genie appears and will instantly pass three pieces of legislation in your town. (Not state or federal) What laws will you choose?

LesserAbe@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 117 points –
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Ban cars in the main street. I'm sure you can learn to walk one block. You might even find you enjoy it when you are not having constant near death experiences with cars.

All those parking spaces are now spaces for pop-up businesses. Food vans, shipping containers that are now selling vegetables, outdoor dining, art fairs, etc.

You can now legally live in those apartments that people used to live in built above the existing shops, before that was made illegal for reasons unknown.

I'll add some aspects for the areas outside of the main CBD street:

  • Separated, protected bike lanes that run the entire city with easy access from the suburban parts
  • Traffic calming measures including speed bumps, reduced (and narrower) lanes, continuous sidewalks, and speed limit reduced to 30 km/h (around 20 mph)
  • Free public transport

Food vans.. in an area where cars are banned? How did the containers get there?

Most places with these bans will allow delivery vehicles and food trucks through. Same goes for emergency vehicles

When I wrote the above I thought, hah someone's going to be like 'bUt HoW WilL tHe vAnS gEt tHeRe jEeNiuS?'. But then I thought, nah noones that iamverysmart. Yet, here we are.

So it's not a car ban and that's the point. You'll have to either make an exception, allow electric only traffic or something else. Many businesses also "need" access for disabled and elderly, so taxis also get a pass. Very few models let you reclaim any streets or parking. Cut down a little, maybe. And that's good of course. But just saying "ban cars" is naïve.