The big idea: should cars be banned from cities? | Cities | The Guardian
Streets have been optimised for one thing: traffic. A kind of ‘urban rewilding’ could return them to the complex social ecosystems they once were
There has been justified excitement around the idea of rewilding over the past few years, with projects popping up all over the UK that aim to restore wildlife and encourage regenerative farming practices. It is now generally accepted that monoculture – largely brought on by the expansion of farmland – is bad for our countryside. But what about our cities
Like natural ecosystems, cities also used to be complex and diverse places that hosted a whole range of different activities. Our streets were public spaces, used for many purposes: work, trade, play, socialising and transportation.
Rebecca Solnit describes our relationship to our city streets perfectly in her book Wanderlust:
“The word citizen has to do with cities, and the ideal city is organised around citizenship – around participation in public life.” And that is how it once was.
Thalia Verkade and Marco te Brömmelstroet are the authors of Movement:
How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives (Scribe), translated by Fiona Graham.
Further reading
Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit (Granta, £9.99)
Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter D. Norton (MIT, £25)
Earthopolis: A Biography of Our Urban Planet by Carl H. Nightingale (CUP, £25)