Case study: Zurich

Case study:
Zurich's car banned policy

While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

The municipal Traffic Planning Department here in Zurich has been working overtime in recent years to torment drivers. Closely spaced red lights have been added on roads into town, causing delays and angst for commuters. Pedestrian underpasses that once allowed traffic to flow freely across major intersections have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Around Löwenplatz, one of Zurich’s busiest squares, cars are now banned on many blocks. Where permitted, their speed is limited to a snail’s pace so that crosswalks and crossing signs can be removed entirely, giving people on foot the right to cross anywhere they like at any time.

As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”

In the past decade, there had been “a conscious shift in thinking, and firm policy,” he said. And it is having an effect. After two decades of car ownership, Hans Von Matt, 52, who works in the insurance industry, sold his vehicle and now gets around Zurich by tram or bicycle, using a car-sharing service for trips out of the city. Carless households have increased from 40 to 45 percent in the last decade, and car owners use their vehicles less, city statistics show.

“There were big fights over whether to close this road or not — but now it is closed, and people got used to it,” he said, alighting from his bicycle on Limmatquai, a riverside pedestrian zone lined with cafes that used to be two lanes of gridlock. Each major road closing has to be approved in a referendum.

Today 91 percent of the delegates to the Swiss Parliament take the tram to work. Still, there is grumbling. “There are all these zones where you can only drive 20 or 30 kilometers per hour [about 12 to 18 miles an hour], which is rather stressful,” Thomas Rickli, a consultant, said as he parked his Jaguar in a lot at the edge of town. “It’s useless.”

Urban planners generally agree that a rise in car commuting is not desirable for cities anywhere.
Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.

According to ICLEI Europe:
http://www.iclei-europe.org/members/member-in-the-spotlight/archive/zurich-and-oslo/

A modern public transport network and an all-encompassing mobility strategy results in a traffic modal-split of 36% public transport, 30% pedestrian/bikes and 26% cars.

European cities are reaping the rewards of innovative parking policies, including revitalized town centers; big reductions in car use; drops in air pollution and rising quality of urban life, according to Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation, published today (January 19th) by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

Recently, Hamburg is promoting its green capital image to the European cities. The project is called "Train of Ideas." The train will travel around Europe and campaign for visions for future cities. The exhibition on the train has 6 topics:
1. Green capital Hamburg
2. I-City of people
3. City as living space
4. City and nature
5. Urban responsibility
6. Cities prior to climate change

In Zurich, bus and train travel to be promoted-not car driving.

Nearly 80 percent of all journeys within Zurich’s city limits are made by foot, bike or public transportation. With its mobility strategy the city is promoting the expansion of local public transportation, like Hamburg and other European cities. Bike and footpaths are also being expanded. Driving a car, however, is expensive in the downtown area. Hard-to-come-by parking spots subject to a charge are intended to stimulate the change to buses and trains.




2000 Watt Society
http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/2000-watt-society

The quality of life in the 2000-Watt Society does not entail any restrictions. On the contrary, security, health, comfort and the development of the individual are all improved, with incomes increasing by around 60 percent over 50 years. On a global level, sustainability will be a necessary condition for peaceful social co-existence.

To achieve this goal by 2050, the city of Zürich is making commitments in the following areas:

• Energy efficiency and renewable energies Comprehensive energy services are offered along with consulting for constructioncompanies to pass on the necessary expertise.
• Sustainable buildings Almost all new constructions such as housing estates, school buildings and retirement homes, correspond to the Minergie Standard (for low-energy housing).
• Mobility for the future  Zürich promotes means of transport which make efficient use of urban spaces and energy resources, namely public transport, pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
• Awareness Regular events to increase public awareness are held, such as the annual environment days and the Zürich Multimobil action day (where the inner-city is closed to cars).