top of page

We Recommend

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.
homepage%25252525202_edited_edited_edite

Books

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.

www.carfree.com

 

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.

www.carfree.com

​

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

​

Mobility: A New Urban Design and Transport Planning Philosophy for a Sustainable Future

John Whitelegg

 

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.

 

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.

Recommendations

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/03/collision-course-pedestrian-deaths-rising-driverless-cars

 

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.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/sep/10/barcelonas-car-free-superblocks-could-save-hundreds-of-lives

​

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.

https://podcast.app/i-cant-drive-the-rationale-for-rationing-e91928684/?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=share

 

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!

https://podcast.app/i-cant-drive-the-rationale-for-rationing-e91928684/?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=share

bottom of page