What if cars disappeared?
Cars are loud, dangerous, and take up tons of space. What would happen if they just disappeared one day? I talk to Peter Calthorpe, founder of award-winning urban design firm Calthorpe Associates.
Strauss: [00:00:00] All right. So I have to share a secret with you, and you're probably gonna lose respect for me because of it, but I've already recorded this episode. So it's too late. My respect is gone. I hate cars. I hate driving them. I hate writing in them. I am constantly afraid. They're going to run me over. Or if I'm driving, I'm going to run someone else over.
I hate how they take up every piece of space outside. Everything is just cars, cars, cars, once you leave your door. So for this episode, I'm going to find out what would happen. If one day all the cars just disappeared. I found a guy who might know.
Calthorpe: [00:00:48] Now, my name is Peter Calthorpe. I'm an urban designer. I've been doing it for maybe 40 years.
Strauss: [00:00:56] So I'm assuming he's just going to tell me something like, well, we need cars. It would be a disaster. If they all disappeared, the world is the way it is for a good reason. I could not have been more wrong.
This is flipped. The show that turns the world upside down to see what falls out. I'm Alana Strauss.
I would love it. If you humored me with a thought experiment. If one day cars just disappeared. What would we do? How would the world have to change?
Calthorpe: [00:01:41] Well, there'd be a huge run on bicycles. I mean, the button, you know, there'd be sold out immediately. You know, it depends on where you are. If, if you took cars, private automobiles out of Manhattan, it wouldn't be a problem at all.
It'd be a better place. There are many great European cities. Don't forget cars only came to dominate our cities. After world war two, we used to build beautiful cities that were walkable and had transit. We had streetcars suburbs that were served by these trolleys. You would take the trolley out to your neighborhood center and walk to your house.
I mean, even small towns existed pretty happily without cars all the time. Elm street, wasn't that far from main street. You have to always remind yourself what your perspective is and what you consider normal. What would happen if you took away cars? They would all of a sudden realize that they have a massive reconstruction project in front of them, which is to reuse the roads and, uh, redevelop the parking lots and turn their communities into healthy walkable places.
Strauss: [00:02:50] So why did that change after world war II? Why did we start just investing so heavily in cars?
Calthorpe: [00:02:58] It was an industrial policy, the federal highway act of 1953. Eisenhower putting in place was a project to kind of take all the capacity that we put into world war II and turn it into industrial activity. You know, without that investment in roads, you wouldn't have had the explosion.
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