on cars:
and this is your city on bikes and public transit:
Cars — driver-assisted or not — are constantly evolving. I suppose designers figure that if you’re going to be stuck in your car in traffic, you might as well be comfortable.
Still, in light of all of this technological innovation, many people are turning their attention away from the car and finding new ways to plan cities. The Complete Street movement is all about slowing down cars, increasing pedestrian and bike traffic, and building richer sidewalk culture. At the same time, car-free zones are gaining popularity in many urban areas.
Labels aside, it’s still amazing to see the comparison between car traffic and bicycle traffic — both from a commuting point of view and from a neighborhood perspective. Changing the way people get around doesn’t mean there won’t be “traffic” (the video above certainly demonstrates that) but it does mean that the traffic is different. Instead of interacting from inside of a machine, people interact with people. And this changes everything.
The city as experienced from inside a car is safe, isolated, and filtered. Honking the horn, shouting, and flipping the bird are almost anonymous actions because the car lets you feel removed from the situation. But on the outside these actions do have consequences. Biking and walking allow you to participate in your surroundings, and when you do so, you are invested in them, too.
While cars separate people, bikes and public transit are communal. For me the complete change in atmosphere surrounding these two scenarios is the defining difference — can it be that “your city on bikes and public transit” just feels better?