Extra space, cleaner air, healthier and happier people, safer streets... Is there really any downside to banning personal cars from the city? Leave the roads for cyclists, public transportation, emergency vehicles and delivery vehicles. Suburbanites can park outside of the city can go the rest of the way via bus/train/bicycle.<p><a href="http://ecooptimism.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bike-bus-car.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://ecooptimism.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/bike-bus-c...</a>
Bogotanian here. This is one of the most unlivable cities there is. As soon as you step out the door you're aggravated in a thousands ways through your day. Bogotá and Colombia usually score high in the "happiness" rankings because of a servitude mentality that dates back to the colony. Inequality is very high even for Latin American standards and people are taught to accept and embrace it. You'll rarely see protests in this country despite the rampant corruption and nepotistic governments. People don't have the notion that democracy is supposed to empower them, and don't know things can and should be better. And of course blind catholic fanaticism only helps to keep them contained. So they think they're "happy".
I spent two days in Copenhagen over the summer for some training and I loved it. The people seemed so much more relaxed than in London or here in the US. And the bikes! They were everywhere! It was so nice :)
The article mentions something along the lines of people who walk to work are happier than if they drove to work.<p>I wonder how remote working from home compares in happiness to walking to a separate but nearby place of work?<p>When I've worked from home for sustained periods, I've felt happier when taking regular walks than if I stay indoors all day. I've found walking before the work day starts to be the most beneficial (just around the block for 5-15 mins). I tried this after a remote working friend recommended it (and his remote working neighbour had recommended it to him IIRC).<p>I wonder if any of you who home work have found the same or otherwise?
Downtown Bogota at night was one of the scariest places I've ever been.<p>On the flip-side, Bogota itself is awesome, made more awesome by Colombians, who are also double awesome!
This was a very interesting article but the evidence presented was especially weak.<p>I was particularly unimpressed by "Bogotá's fortunes have since declined. The TransMilenio system is plagued by desperate crowding as its private operators fail to add more capacity – yet more proof that robust public transport needs sustained public investment." It seems like any outcome is evidence for the authors views.
The car is a textbook case of catastrophically bad scaling. For sporadic use (errands, long trips, leisure) it's amazing. For daily commuting (60 miles per day, plus parking) it's horrible. Space-consuming, polluting, expensive (except cheap relative to, e.g., Amtrak because no one uses the latter) and unsafe when abused to the point that cars are (operated while drunk, while seriously ill, or at unreasonable speeds given congestion).<p>The problem is that people, individually, don't want to give up the freedom. It's "other drivers" that are the problem. Add to this the fact that so few people <i>can</i> use other means of transportation-- those have fallen into ruin.
I wrote a related article about a year ago that discusses a major threat to Canada's identity: A Big Reason Canadians are so Happy (and Why it's at Risk): <a href="http://allsprawldown.com/activism/a-big-reason-canadians-are-so-happy-and-why-its-at-risk/" rel="nofollow">http://allsprawldown.com/activism/a-big-reason-canadians-are...</a>