Dutch, Part-time Pedestrian Revolutionary

Let your car be squashed to the size of a refrigerator and you’ll get a year’s free use of public transport! This is one of the more creative solutions they came up with in England to help reduce the many problems caused by cars in city centers.

Engine trouble
-Cars take up a lot of space. For each car in Japan, there are a mere four parking spaces
-Around 50% of air pollution, and a lot of the noise pollution in most urban areas is thanks to cars
-Cars kill. It is estimated that worldwide each year, 1.2 million people die in car accidents
-And moreﾉ There’s illegal parking, esthetic pollution, driver stress, motorists using mobile phones while driving, huge car graveyardsﾉ need I go on?

What can we do?
Sell the car, buy a horse? Good idea, but impractical. No, obviously cars cannot be done away with completely. Once in a while I find them very convenient – for that trip to Aso or when I want to stock up on tortillas and cheese at COSTCO. We do have a problem though, and it’s only getting worse, so what can we do? We could car-pool or share car ownership, drive less, walk, ride a bike or use public transport more. A solution I would like to focus on is a car-free city center.

Imagine thisﾉ
You’re walking around the Daimyo area of Fukuoka. You’ve just bought a t-shirt and now you’re crossing the street to buy an ice cream. You sit down on a bench under a tree to take in the sounds of a street musician, without any beeping horns or grinding gearboxes to ruin the tunes. You admire the artwork across the street, with no hulking SUV’s blocking your view. There are no noxious car fumes, just the smell of street vendors’ flowers. A friend passes by with her two young children. They play tag and she doesn’t have to worry about their safety; only early-morning delivery trucks are allowed here. Pleasant, no?

What you’ve just imagined is Daimyo as a car-free zone. I believe Daimyo is the perfect place to attempt this idea. It is one of the oldest parts of Fukuoka; the streets are narrow, the shops are stylish and it already has a cozy, trendy atmosphere with people walking in the middle of the street. The area isn’t too big, so you don’t need to be Mizuki Noguchi (Athens Gold Medal Marathon runner) to get around.

An illusion?
‘This girl has been drinking too much shochu, she’s delusionalﾉ’ I don’t think so. Coming from Holland, this is nothing new; I just described most of our city centers. It didn’t used to be like this, though. Car culture crept up on us rather quickly and took over the city streets, until local residents, shop owners and other concerned citizens voiced their concerns and voted for change.

No smooth ride
Some shop owners in cities where it was proposed were initially negative about the idea, as they feared they would lose income. However, car-free centers proved a great success and were extremely popular with residents – the quality of life within the city center improved significantly, sales went up and real estate prices increased, as did the number of tourists. These changes didn’t happen overnight, but pedestrian-friendly car-free city centers are becoming more prevalent in European towns and cities.

It doesn’t have to be done all at once. To start with it could be one day a week, once a month, or even a one-off experiment. Shop owners could see the effects on their sales and a questionnaire could be used to find out what shoppers think.

Group effort
‘There’s no point trying this here, it’s too difficult,’ I hear people say. Yes, it is rare that one person or group makes a change by themselves, and most of the time it’s a very slow cumulative process involving ideas and attempted action. But, if the people in charge hear about a car-free Daimyo often enough from different people, they might start considering it.

A car-free zone: you either think it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I’d like to hear your opinion, so please visit www.now.blog-city.com and leave your comment. By writing this article, I hope to find out if there are more people wanting to try to make a change and who are willing to spend the time and energy to do so. I hope this article will make people think about the issue and talk among themselves. Together we can make a change!

 

 

 

 

「車を冷蔵庫サイズにつぶして、年間交通パスをゲットしよう！」…とこれはイギリスで実際に行われた車撲滅キャンペーンの話。駐車スペースの確保も悩みのタネだがそれだけじゃない、車が引き起こす問題や事故も年々増加しているのが現状。公害、事故、違反駐車から運転手ストレス症までと車に関するトラブルは幅広いよね。車なんて売り飛ばして代わりに馬を！ってのも悪くない。だけど、車は言わずと知れた優れもの、無くなるなんてあり得ないし。そうだ、今こそ皆で車による害を減らすべく立ち上がるべきだと！じゃあ、私たちに何が出来るのか？…例えば、共同で車を所有するシステムだってあるし、車の代わりに自転車に乗ったり、と方法はいろいろあるよね。「都市中心部車ゼロ計画」カー・フリー・ゾーンを作る。そう、これこそ私の理想！想像してみてよ、あなたは大名エリアを散策中。ショッピングを楽しんだ後、木の下のベンチに腰を下ろしストリートミュージシャンが奏でる音楽を楽しむ。車の騒音がジャマすることも、４WDの大きな窓が視界を遮ることもない。子供連れの親子も安全で自由な時間が楽しめる。そこは、秋の心地よい風を肌で感じられる、落ち着いた歩行者の空間。古い歴史とスタイリッシュなショップやカフェが共存するこのエリアを、車を気にすることなく、自由に散策できたらどんなにいいかしら、って思うのよね。
オランダの都市中心部だったら、車を見かける事はほとんどないの。でも、昔はと言うとそうではなかったの。オランダでカー・フリー・ゾーンが提案された当初、売り上げの減少を懸念した商店の店主たちの意見はそれは冷たいものだった。「ローマは一日にしてならず」じゃないけれど、一気に「カーフリー」を実行するのは難しい。でもこの政策の甲斐あって街は徐々に発展。 空気は澄み切り、観光客も増え、ストリートに並ぶ店は繁盛し、地価も上がったわ。そしてそれが次第にヨーロッパ中で認知され始めて広がっていったというわけ。…と、言う事で！オホンっ「皆で努力をすれば福岡でだってできるハズ！」たった一人じゃ難しいかもしれないけど、皆が一つになって立ち上がれば、大名エリアのカー・フリー・ゾーン化は夢じゃない！と思うのだけれど、皆さんドォデショ？
カー・フリー・ゾーンについてのご意見・ご感想を http://www.now.blog-city.com まで。私と同じ意見を持った人達と語り合いたい。そして福岡の人達の日常会話に、このトピックが出てくるといいな。

 

 

 

 

Let your car be squashed to the size of a refrigerator and you’ll get a year’s free use of public transport! This is one of the more creative solutions they came up with in England to help reduce the many problems caused by cars in city centers.

Engine trouble
-Cars take up a lot of space. For each car in Japan, there are a mere four parking spaces
-Around 50% of air pollution, and a lot of the noise pollution in most urban areas is thanks to cars
-Cars kill. It is estimated that worldwide each year, 1.2 million people die in car accidents
-And moreﾉ There’s illegal parking, esthetic pollution, driver stress, motorists using mobile phones while driving, huge car graveyardsﾉ need I go on?

What can we do?
Sell the car, buy a horse? Good idea, but impractical. No, obviously cars cannot be done away with completely. Once in a while I find them very convenient – for that trip to Aso or when I want to stock up on tortillas and cheese at COSTCO. We do have a problem though, and it’s only getting worse, so what can we do? We could car-pool or share car ownership, drive less, walk, ride a bike or use public transport more. A solution I would like to focus on is a car-free city center.

Imagine thisﾉ
You’re walking around the Daimyo area of Fukuoka. You’ve just bought a t-shirt and now you’re crossing the street to buy an ice cream. You sit down on a bench under a tree to take in the sounds of a street musician, without any beeping horns or grinding gearboxes to ruin the tunes. You admire the artwork across the street, with no hulking SUV’s blocking your view. There are no noxious car fumes, just the smell of street vendors’ flowers. A friend passes by with her two young children. They play tag and she doesn’t have to worry about their safety; only early-morning delivery trucks are allowed here. Pleasant, no?

What you’ve just imagined is Daimyo as a car-free zone. I believe Daimyo is the perfect place to attempt this idea. It is one of the oldest parts of Fukuoka; the streets are narrow, the shops are stylish and it already has a cozy, trendy atmosphere with people walking in the middle of the street. The area isn’t too big, so you don’t need to be Mizuki Noguchi (Athens Gold Medal Marathon runner) to get around.

An illusion?
‘This girl has been drinking too much shochu, she’s delusionalﾉ’ I don’t think so. Coming from Holland, this is nothing new; I just described most of our city centers. It didn’t used to be like this, though. Car culture crept up on us rather quickly and took over the city streets, until local residents, shop owners and other concerned citizens voiced their concerns and voted for change.

No smooth ride
Some shop owners in cities where it was proposed were initially negative about the idea, as they feared they would lose income. However, car-free centers proved a great success and were extremely popular with residents – the quality of life within the city center improved significantly, sales went up and real estate prices increased, as did the number of tourists. These changes didn’t happen overnight, but pedestrian-friendly car-free city centers are becoming more prevalent in European towns and cities.

It doesn’t have to be done all at once. To start with it could be one day a week, once a month, or even a one-off experiment. Shop owners could see the effects on their sales and a questionnaire could be used to find out what shoppers think.

Group effort
‘There’s no point trying this here, it’s too difficult,’ I hear people say. Yes, it is rare that one person or group makes a change by themselves, and most of the time it’s a very slow cumulative process involving ideas and attempted action. But, if the people in charge hear about a car-free Daimyo often enough from different people, they might start considering it.

A car-free zone: you either think it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I’d like to hear your opinion, so please visit www.now.blog-city.com and leave your comment. By writing this article, I hope to find out if there are more people wanting to try to make a change and who are willing to spend the time and energy to do so. I hope this article will make people think about the issue and talk among themselves. Together we can make a change!

 

 

 

 

Let your car be squashed to the size of a refrigerator and you’ll get a year’s free use of public transport! This is one of the more creative solutions they came up with in England to help reduce the many problems caused by cars in city centers.

Engine trouble
-Cars take up a lot of space. For each car in Japan, there are a mere four parking spaces
-Around 50% of air pollution, and a lot of the noise pollution in most urban areas is thanks to cars
-Cars kill. It is estimated that worldwide each year, 1.2 million people die in car accidents
-And moreﾉ There’s illegal parking, esthetic pollution, driver stress, motorists using mobile phones while driving, huge car graveyardsﾉ need I go on?

What can we do?
Sell the car, buy a horse? Good idea, but impractical. No, obviously cars cannot be done away with completely. Once in a while I find them very convenient – for that trip to Aso or when I want to stock up on tortillas and cheese at COSTCO. We do have a problem though, and it’s only getting worse, so what can we do? We could car-pool or share car ownership, drive less, walk, ride a bike or use public transport more. A solution I would like to focus on is a car-free city center.

Imagine thisﾉ
You’re walking around the Daimyo area of Fukuoka. You’ve just bought a t-shirt and now you’re crossing the street to buy an ice cream. You sit down on a bench under a tree to take in the sounds of a street musician, without any beeping horns or grinding gearboxes to ruin the tunes. You admire the artwork across the street, with no hulking SUV’s blocking your view. There are no noxious car fumes, just the smell of street vendors’ flowers. A friend passes by with her two young children. They play tag and she doesn’t have to worry about their safety; only early-morning delivery trucks are allowed here. Pleasant, no?

What you’ve just imagined is Daimyo as a car-free zone. I believe Daimyo is the perfect place to attempt this idea. It is one of the oldest parts of Fukuoka; the streets are narrow, the shops are stylish and it already has a cozy, trendy atmosphere with people walking in the middle of the street. The area isn’t too big, so you don’t need to be Mizuki Noguchi (Athens Gold Medal Marathon runner) to get around.

An illusion?
‘This girl has been drinking too much shochu, she’s delusionalﾉ’ I don’t think so. Coming from Holland, this is nothing new; I just described most of our city centers. It didn’t used to be like this, though. Car culture crept up on us rather quickly and took over the city streets, until local residents, shop owners and other concerned citizens voiced their concerns and voted for change.

No smooth ride
Some shop owners in cities where it was proposed were initially negative about the idea, as they feared they would lose income. However, car-free centers proved a great success and were extremely popular with residents – the quality of life within the city center improved significantly, sales went up and real estate prices increased, as did the number of tourists. These changes didn’t happen overnight, but pedestrian-friendly car-free city centers are becoming more prevalent in European towns and cities.

It doesn’t have to be done all at once. To start with it could be one day a week, once a month, or even a one-off experiment. Shop owners could see the effects on their sales and a questionnaire could be used to find out what shoppers think.

Group effort
‘There’s no point trying this here, it’s too difficult,’ I hear people say. Yes, it is rare that one person or group makes a change by themselves, and most of the time it’s a very slow cumulative process involving ideas and attempted action. But, if the people in charge hear about a car-free Daimyo often enough from different people, they might start considering it.

A car-free zone: you either think it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I’d like to hear your opinion, so please visit www.now.blog-city.com and leave your comment. By writing this article, I hope to find out if there are more people wanting to try to make a change and who are willing to spend the time and energy to do so. I hope this article will make people think about the issue and talk among themselves. Together we can make a change!

 

 

 

 

Let your car be squashed to the size of a refrigerator and you’ll get a year’s free use of public transport! This is one of the more creative solutions they came up with in England to help reduce the many problems caused by cars in city centers.

Engine trouble
-Cars take up a lot of space. For each car in Japan, there are a mere four parking spaces
-Around 50% of air pollution, and a lot of the noise pollution in most urban areas is thanks to cars
-Cars kill. It is estimated that worldwide each year, 1.2 million people die in car accidents
-And moreﾉ There’s illegal parking, esthetic pollution, driver stress, motorists using mobile phones while driving, huge car graveyardsﾉ need I go on?

What can we do?
Sell the car, buy a horse? Good idea, but impractical. No, obviously cars cannot be done away with completely. Once in a while I find them very convenient – for that trip to Aso or when I want to stock up on tortillas and cheese at COSTCO. We do have a problem though, and it’s only getting worse, so what can we do? We could car-pool or share car ownership, drive less, walk, ride a bike or use public transport more. A solution I would like to focus on is a car-free city center.

Imagine thisﾉ
You’re walking around the Daimyo area of Fukuoka. You’ve just bought a t-shirt and now you’re crossing the street to buy an ice cream. You sit down on a bench under a tree to take in the sounds of a street musician, without any beeping horns or grinding gearboxes to ruin the tunes. You admire the artwork across the street, with no hulking SUV’s blocking your view. There are no noxious car fumes, just the smell of street vendors’ flowers. A friend passes by with her two young children. They play tag and she doesn’t have to worry about their safety; only early-morning delivery trucks are allowed here. Pleasant, no?

What you’ve just imagined is Daimyo as a car-free zone. I believe Daimyo is the perfect place to attempt this idea. It is one of the oldest parts of Fukuoka; the streets are narrow, the shops are stylish and it already has a cozy, trendy atmosphere with people walking in the middle of the street. The area isn’t too big, so you don’t need to be Mizuki Noguchi (Athens Gold Medal Marathon runner) to get around.

An illusion?
‘This girl has been drinking too much shochu, she’s delusionalﾉ’ I don’t think so. Coming from Holland, this is nothing new; I just described most of our city centers. It didn’t used to be like this, though. Car culture crept up on us rather quickly and took over the city streets, until local residents, shop owners and other concerned citizens voiced their concerns and voted for change.

No smooth ride
Some shop owners in cities where it was proposed were initially negative about the idea, as they feared they would lose income. However, car-free centers proved a great success and were extremely popular with residents – the quality of life within the city center improved significantly, sales went up and real estate prices increased, as did the number of tourists. These changes didn’t happen overnight, but pedestrian-friendly car-free city centers are becoming more prevalent in European towns and cities.

It doesn’t have to be done all at once. To start with it could be one day a week, once a month, or even a one-off experiment. Shop owners could see the effects on their sales and a questionnaire could be used to find out what shoppers think.

Group effort
‘There’s no point trying this here, it’s too difficult,’ I hear people say. Yes, it is rare that one person or group makes a change by themselves, and most of the time it’s a very slow cumulative process involving ideas and attempted action. But, if the people in charge hear about a car-free Daimyo often enough from different people, they might start considering it.

A car-free zone: you either think it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I’d like to hear your opinion, so please visit www.now.blog-city.com and leave your comment. By writing this article, I hope to find out if there are more people wanting to try to make a change and who are willing to spend the time and energy to do so. I hope this article will make people think about the issue and talk among themselves. Together we can make a change!