Urban Centres of the Future

Will Personal Vehicles be Banned from Cities?

In my lifetime this is what I have experienced as trends for of living and working. I am referring here to a working class or middle income family. The very wealthy can always do whatever they want.

Families had a basic choice - buy in the city if you enjoyed that kind of living and could afford it, or buy further away in the "burbs" where property was cheaper and lots were bigger.

My parents chose the "burbs" - Scarborough, Ontario, Canada and bought car(s) to commute to Toronto where dad worked, which at that time was easy to do. 

I did both. With my first job and first car I lived and worked in the city as a young bachelor. I rented an apartment and travelled on public transportation. When I finally bought and settled down I switched to the burbs which had spread even further away from the core of the city. Depending on job location, I drove or took public transportation.

I expect that most large North American cities and residents went through the same phases, as did European cites but often centuries ago. Now things are changing rapidly.

1. Populations are exploding, primarily through immigration 
2. City property is becoming way out of most peoples' range financially 
3. Land and housing in the burbs is undergoing the same inflation of prices
4. Commuter expressways are becoming impossible to travel - most are at standstills
5. Petroleum fuelled vehicles are being phased out. But even if we all drove electric ones, that wouldn't solve the traffic congestion problem
6. The vehicles themselves are getting beyond the financial reach of many people
7. Many investors often foreign are buying up what properties are still available
8. Most of the jobs available to my parents' and even my generation are gone
9. Now there are many high rise condos being built close to trains. Most are for young people who still work in Toronto but can't afford housing anywhere. Traffic is even worse. Older generations (mine!) want to hold on to what they have

What can we do? Here are some thoughts but I welcome your input. Please comment below. 

1. Make it financially unviable for most people to drive their cars to work. Put the onus on companies to say a car is needed for an employee if that is the case. Punish companies who falsify this
2. For self-employed people, they would also have to declare in a suitable fashion that driving is necessary and prove why. Special officers could do random checks on people to see who is cheating
3. For 1. and 2. to work massive spending on public transportation is needed. It has to be close, frequent, reliable, and inexpensive
4. Considerable incentives should be available to large companies to locate their major offices outside the cities taking the jobs to the people
5. If they have not done so already, political leaders should visit other cities who have solved many of these problems and Paris is a good starting place
6. Wealthy people have to follow the same rules
7. Nail today's non-paying cheaters on public transit with massive fines

Personal flying craft are the stuff of dreams. There are enough horrible drivers. Don't even think about it. Also I'd rather walk than trust an auto-pilot.

The Brewster