Street Sweepers

摘要

Cars emit a huge chunk of cities' greenhouse gases, but cities are doing something about it—and not just in New York, Paris, and San Francisco. It makes sense: Cities that don't help destroy the planet are also nice places to live. In 2003, Seoul shifted a freeway-building binge into reverse. City workers dismantled an expressway and turned its path into a popular park. Since then, Seoul has knocked down 15 more freeways and is building a transit network emphasizing bikes and trolleys. The city's basic plan was already a grid of wide boulevards threaded with smaller side streets. Barcelona made side streets narrower, greener, and more parklike—extremely unfriendly to cars, which now stick to the perimeters. These new superblocks are so popular, the city plans to make 500 more.