why is it so difficult to take away street space from the private car?

摘要

One of the benefits of travel - which many of us are missing at the moment - is that we sometimes see things that are very different from our usual experiences. It really does broaden the mind. This of course covers many areas, but in terms of transport we sometimes see an innovative project and instantly know that the approach could be useful elsewhere. Although there have been calls, over decades, for greater sustainability in transport, they have not usually been reflected in the space given to different users of the street. If you look out of the window, you will usually see that most of the space on the street (or, more accurately, the highway) is given to the private car. How this has come to be is fascinating in itself: the street has been given over to the car since the 1950s, involving a complex set of actors and processes, and this seems difficult to remedy. Changing the allocation of space on the street only highlights wider tensions in society. We mostly all agree that we should address climate change and social equity problems and encourage active travel as this will lead to very positive health impacts, yet we are not willing to give up the space given to the private car on our streets.