Pedestrian areas multiply in Europe, bucking trend in car-friendly U.S.

European Cities Becoming More Pedestrian-Friendly

Pedestrian-friendly cities are becoming the norm in Europe very much unlike in the United States where the trend is transforming cities to make them more conducive for car drivers.

Governments in Europe are doing everything from converting multiple roads into pedestrian areas and creating so-called "environmental zones" within cities that are only for vehicles with low emissions.

Paris and Barcelona have instituted bike-sharing programs and streets in Munich and Vienna are being closed for pedestrian use only. The idea is to discourage widespread use of carbon-emitting cars and instead support walking and modes of transportation that are considered "green."

In Europe, parking spaces are kept at a minimum and often come with expensive rates. Huge swathes of European cities are being built for walkers and bikers and car users are slowly finding it harder and more stressful to drive around the city.

This pedestrian-friendly trend contrasts with car-friendly America whose residents are influenced by a culture and economy partially built on the love of the automobile.

In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving," said Peder Jensen, who is chief of the Energy and Transport Group of the European Environment Agency.

"Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars," Jensen said.

Some U.S. cities such as San Francisco has also implemented programs to encourage pedestrian use of streets but these projects are still rare. Instead, most U.S. cities usually implement initiatives like improving traffic in expressways or offering apps to aid drivers to secure parking spots.

Posted by Sophia Andrews on Saturday July 02 2011, 6:24 AM EST. Ref: NYT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Travel. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0