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Build Back Better Cities Campaign
Our Recommendations
Thankfully, apart from CCA there are many others who are doing amazing work in promoting carfree cities and sustainable urban practices. We present you with a selection of highly recommended articles, websites, books and more. Please note that external content will open in a new window.
Books
Mobility: A New Urban Design and Transport Planning Philosophy for a Sustainable Future
John Whitelegg
new for download!
This book makes an impassioned plea to shift away from the mobility growth model. It is also carefully researched with numerous statistics, covering the effects of motorized travel in our cities and on our health and wellbeing.
Carfree Cities
by J.H. Crawford
This book is a thorough introduction to and explanation on how we can develop cities to be completely carfree.
Carfree Design Manual
by J.H. Crawford
This is the second book on carfree cities by J.H. Crawford. This book contains both beautiful examples of carfree streets as well as a deeper exploration of the process of designing carfree cities.
How to Build a Village Town
by Claude Lewenz
For the last 50 years, we have been building communities for the wrong reason. "How to Build a VillageTown" proposes to turn real estate development upside down, so that people may regain control of their lives, their communities and their future.
https://markettowns.nz/index.php/books
A Pattern Language
by Christopher Alexander
A pioneering American architect sets a high standard for holistic design and planning that puts sustainability at the center. This volume contains numerous design principles ranging from the corner of a room to that of an entire city.
Publications
Reclaiming City Streets For People: Chaos or Quality of Life?
Published by the European Union
An important study by the EU on the effects of closing streets to cars and opening them up to people. Discusses the phenomenon of "traffic evaporation" and provides convincing arguments for a workable model for any city.
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/pubs/pdf/streets_people.pdf
Carfree Times Archive
By J.H. Crawford
Read the whole archive of this excellent news and journal service by J.H. Crawford. This online journal was active publishing between 1997 and 2019.
http://carfree.com/cft/index.html
Environmental determinants of cycling: Not seeing the forest for the trees?
By Nello-Deakin, S. (2020).
Journal of Transport Geography, 85, 102704.
http://doi.org/10.1016/J.JTRANGEO.2020.102704
Articles
Can We Design Cities That Don't Need Cars?
By David Thorpe
The World Economic Forum (WEF) takes a look at what leaders say about future cities. Quotes former Mexican president Felipe Calderon as saying that future cities should be designed without cars.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/can-we-design-cities-that-dont-need-cars/
Zaha Hadid Architects Proposes Pedestrianising London
The well-known architectural company has its own plan for a network of pedestrian streets in the British capital.
https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/21/zaha-hadid-proposes-pedestrianising-infrastructure-london-uk-news/
Collision course: why are cars killing more and more pedestrians?
By Peter C. Baker
A thorough look at car culture and mortality, explaining the rise of pedestrian deaths and the fact that anti crash technology is not currently a big help.
Carmageddon: it’s killing urban life. We must reclaim our cities before it’s too late
By George Monbiot
No-nonsense talk from George Monbiot, on how cars are wrecking our cities and how SUVs are doing that even more quickly.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/20/cars-cities-land-rover-pollution-urban-spaces
Barcelona's car-free 'superblocks' could save hundreds of lives
By Stephen Burgen
A delightful overview of Barcelona's ground-breaking Superblock system.
The Relevance of Ancient Newari Urban Settlement Patterns to the Global Sustainability Crisis: The Sociocultural Aspects and Urban Form of Newar Towns
By Dristy Shrestha and Shail Shrestha
A Local indigenous take on how carfree cities design can be found in the urban culture patterns around the world. This one zooms in on the community in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal.
http://carfree.com/cft/i077.html#newar
Films
Carfree Cities Youtube Channel - Institute of Wellbeing
The Institute of Wellbeing has several carfree cities videos on its YouTube channel. These include an absolutely awesome rocking Carfree Cities song, and videos about carfree street celebrations, road deaths, parklets, and disadvantages of cars in our cities. Many are also available in Bengali.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGuxicNNl9N0PKcE0pKBgSg
Car Traffic in Bhaktapur 2016 (Nepali) with English subtitle
Car Traffic in Bhaktapur includes discussion with the residents of Bhaktapur on the rapidly increasing traffic inside the core historic city and what should be done about it. It also explores the promise of this city to be recognized as among the most sustainable model cities in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmOtH-v9dx0
Car Trouble: And How to Fix It
A humorous look at the mess cars have made of our world. Ends with some simple but radical suggestions to fix it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92XvLXcJP7k
With Cars or Without?
Thanks to the magic of Photoshop, you can see what a street looks like when you slice out the car part. I'm betting you'll prefer "B" over "A" by a lot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prw4ylxpi70
Carfree Cities: The Gritty Details
Describes how entirely carfree cities can be arranged. Different approaches for new and existing cities are presented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9qUvTTlF2Y
Gorgeous Car Free Cities around the World
Car free cities are growing. More and more cosmopolitan cities are becoming environment-friendly, and car free is a major issue that is being tackled. #Architecture #Environment #Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoBgAuxsp-M
Oslo: The Journey to Car-free
Ever since the big announcement carried worldwide in 2015 that Oslo, Norway's new progressive city government planned to make the downtown car-free by 2019. This is a look at its progress.
http://www.streetfilms.org/oslo-the-journey-to-car-free/
Superblocks: How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars
Modern cities are designed for cars. But the city of Barcelona is testing out an urban design trick that can give cities back to pedestrians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORzsubQA_M
Podcasts
I Can't Drive... 35! The Rationale for Rationing
By Crazy Town
With equal parts humor and in-depth analysis, Asher, Rob, and Jason safeguard their sanity while probing crazy-making topics like climate change, overshoot, runaway capitalism, and why we’re all deluding ourselves.
My Car Is Bigger Than Yours
By Crazy Town
Driving: modern society's most efficient way to lose money, time and health. Not to mention climate stability!