News from Elsewhere

Tom Standage17 August, 2021

• Car production may never exceed its level in 2017.

• Car usage has been falling in Western countries, particularly in cities.

• Ride-hailing and public transit likely are the future of transportation.

The following is an excerpt from the book A Brief History of Motion.
In the 2020s there are clear signs that enthusiasm for cars is finally waning. Even some people within the industry now acknowledge that the world is now at, or has passed, “peak car” — the point at which car ownership and use level off and start to decline. Car production may never exceed its level in 2017. “It could well be that we passed the peak in global automotive production,” said Volkmar Denner, chief executive of Robert Bosch, the world’s largest maker of car parts, in January 2020. And that was before the coronavirus pandemic whacked car sales.

How Many Bikes Are There in the World?
Nobody knows exactly how many bikes exist in the world, but it is estimated that there are somewhere around 1 billion. It’s a huge number. For comparison, there are around 1.5 billion cars in the world.

Jennifer Rankin
Drivers who play booming music, slam on the gas or screech around town have been put on notice by the Belgian city of Ghent: their vehicles could be confiscated for breaching noise limits.
The Flemish city introduced a new regulation last month allowing police to impound vehicles whose drivers were causing excessive noise, either by playing loud music – dubbed boom cars – aggressive driving, or tampering with engines and exhaust pipes to make their vehicles noisier.

The increase in road traffic in London during Covid, estimated at 30%, remains unaddressed by government. And rather than honour its 2019 election manifesto pledge to spend £9.2bn improving the energy efficiency of homes, schools and hospitals, the government omitted it from the budget. Yet while central government has fiddled, local government has acted. More than 500 jurisdictions have declared a climate emergency. Britain doesn’t therefore need more “plans… with a programme” and “a clear strategy” (“If we want to lead on climate, we must get our own house in order”, Editorial), it just needs urgent action to fund and implement existing plans across the country.

David Murray
Wallington, Surrey

A version of this post was originally published by Mariana Gil in Portuegese on TheCityFix Brasil on July 13, 2011.
How many bikes can you fit in the space occupied by a single car? Never thought about it? The creators of Car Bike Rack, CycleHoop, did and they developed a car-shaped bike rack to prove the point.
Originally commissioned by the London Festival of Architecture, the bright-colored bike racks raise awareness and encourage the use of non-motorized transport by converting car parking spaces into parking docks for 10 bicycles. Besides the functional purpose they serve cyclists, the car-shaped racks convey a serious message in a humorous way, explained the British company.

All of which makes Stockton-on-Tees a heartening example. Here, the council has striven to bring uses into its centre that are not mere consumption: events, independent enterprise, performance, a refurbished art deco theatre. It is also planning to demolish the 1970s Castlegate shopping centre and replace it with a park, which will open up a connection between the town’s broad high street and its formerly neglected river.