Why Europe is going ‘car free’
ROME — European cities are dramatically scaling back their relationship with the car.They are removing parking spaces and creating dedicated bike lanes. They are installing cameras at the perimeter of urban centers and either charging the most-polluting vehicles or preventing them from entering. Some are going so far as to put entire neighborhoods off-limits to vehicles.In Norway, Oslo promotes “car-free livability.” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo touts the “end of car dependence.” And while those ideas might sound radical to car-loving Americans, they are fast becoming the norm across the Atlantic, where 340 European cities and towns — home to more than 150 million people — have implemented some kind of restrictions on personal car usage.Such programs “are taking over Europe,” said Barbara Stoll, director of the Clean Cities Campaign, part of the Brussels-based Transport & Environment advocacy group. “I think large European cities are realizing that the car has dominated our lives for way too long.”In the popular imagination of tourists, European cities — with their postcard piazzas and narrow footpaths that predate the automotive age — might seem like a seamless fit for such moves. But until several decades ago, European cities were in fact being colonized by vehicles, with engineers devising massive highways and tunnels aimed at easing car access to urban cores.The new policies, then, point to the increasingly assertive way this continent is rethinking the design of cities — and the priorities of health and climate.At least one American city is trying to follow suit. In January, New York began enforcing a first-in-the-nation fee — typically $9 — for drivers trying to enter Lower and Midtown Manhattan during peak hours. The goals were both to thin traffic and pump revenue into the busy and creaking city transit system. Advocates quickly called the program transformative, saying it resulted in less congestion without bruising the economy.But the congestion pricing program has sparked anger from commuters in outer boroughs. And last month the Trump administration moved to halt it, with Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy calling it a “slap in the face” to working-class drivers and small-business owners.The program’s future now hinges on a legal showdown.Only a few other American cities — Chicago, San Francisco and Washington — have transit networks to make major car-reduction policies potentially viable. Some have floated the idea but not implemented it.Outside of Europe, Singapore stands out for one of the most rigorous plans, involving vehicle quotas and charges during peak hours.“The city’s development pattern has to be dense in order to make this work,” said Steven Cohen, a Columbia University vice dean who specializes in sustainability, politics and environmental management.In Europe, some of the programs are framed in explicitly environmental terms, with an emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2022, the transport sector accounted for one-quarter of emissions in the European Union. Many cities also highlight the importance of reducing air pollution, including fine particulate matter, which policymakers describe as a silent urban killer.But whatever the rationale, virtually every major European city is imposing some kind of rule. Milan has a system similar to New York’s, charging for access to the city core — while entirely banning older, highly polluting vehicles. London charges vehicles that don’t meet emissions standards, in what it calls the “largest clean-air zone in the world.” The programs are not just the purview of liberal Western Europe: Warsaw, Poland, and Sofia, Bulgaria, recently adopted similar schemes.Even little Italian villages have added vehicle restrictions to reinforce their historic feel.And the Netherlands just broke ground on a 12,000-person neighborhood that will be entirely car-free. The neighborhood, known as Merwede, will be connected by public transport to Utrecht, a medium-size city that — perhaps no surprise — has a low-emissions zone of its own.“We think we can create much more quality in every sense to place the cars out of this area,” said Mirjam Schmüll, a program manager involved with the Merwede project. Residents, she said, could have access to garages outside the neighborhood, but ideally wouldn’t need them very often.Perhaps the most elaborate and transformative effort has come in Paris, where Hidalgo, a Socialist, was elected mayor in 2014. Since then, Paris has banned the most-polluting vehicles from the city, eliminated 50,000 parking spaces and added hundreds of miles of bike lanes. It turned a bank of the Seine from a busy artery into a pedestrian zone, and closed off the famed Rue de Rivoli to traffic.The latest step came in November when four central arrondissements, or districts, were closed to through traffic.Journeys by car in Paris have dropped by about 45 percent since 1990.The city has now become a source for striking before-and-after photos: of clogged streets that have transitioned into tree-lined areas where people can walk and play.“The radical transformation in the recent 10 years is essentially to transform the lifestyle of Parisians,” said Carlos Moreno, a professor at Paris’s Sorbonne University who has advised Hidalgo and who devised the concept of the “15-minute city” — putting residents within walking, bicycling or transport distance of everything they need.For Europeans, the personal car isn’t quite the totem of liberty it is in America. But the car crackdown has still been met with outcry: raucous town-hall meetings, protests, even the vandalism of cameras used for enforcement. Conservative papers in Britain have described a “war on motorists.” In his 2023 book, London Mayor Sadiq Khan described an “extensive campaign” on social media to drum up opposition to London’s “Ultra Low Emissions Zone.” Khan also wrote that he was sent a bullet in the mail amid protests over the program.In Sweden, Stockholm several months ago had wanted to designate a 20-block upscale area as a “Zero Emission Zone” — meaning, essentially, that it could be accessed only by electric vehicles. But the plan was held up by a legal challenge from a business group, which cited the risk of “reduced attractiveness of city centers” and job losses.Indeed, Stockholm was one of the first European cities to introduce vehicle restrictions — in 1996, a time when the continent was first confronting the problem of heavy smog. In 2008, the European Union’s parliament set air-quality limits, including for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which can burrow into lungs and cause respiratory disease.“We are a continent of regulation. We regulate, and then things happen,” Stoll said.London says that PM2.5 levels have fallen, and that nitrogen dioxide — a pollutant stemming from combustion — is 53 percent lower than it would have been without the restrictions. One recent study, examining the English city of Bradford, attributed a reduction in hospital admissions for respiratory cases to the city’s clean-air policies.Moreno advises cities to think about transportation options stacked in a pyramid, with the best choices — walking, cycling, public transportation — at the wide bottom.“It’s not about a war on cars,” he said.But yes, he said, cars should be the option of last resort.
At a time when New York City and the Trump administration are battling over a congestion pricing program, Europe is dramatically scaling back its relationship with cars.
ROME — European cities are dramatically scaling back their relationship with the car.
They are removing parking spaces and creating dedicated bike lanes. They are installing cameras at the perimeter of urban centers and either charging the most-polluting vehicles or preventing them from entering. Some are going so far as to put entire neighborhoods off-limits to vehicles.
In Norway, Oslo promotes “car-free livability.” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo touts the “end of car dependence.” And while those ideas might sound radical to car-loving Americans, they are fast becoming the norm across the Atlantic, where 340 European cities and towns — home to more than 150 million people — have implemented some kind of restrictions on personal car usage.
Such programs “are taking over Europe,” said Barbara Stoll, director of the Clean Cities Campaign, part of the Brussels-based Transport & Environment advocacy group. “I think large European cities are realizing that the car has dominated our lives for way too long.”
In the popular imagination of tourists, European cities — with their postcard piazzas and narrow footpaths that predate the automotive age — might seem like a seamless fit for such moves. But until several decades ago, European cities were in fact being colonized by vehicles, with engineers devising massive highways and tunnels aimed at easing car access to urban cores.
The new policies, then, point to the increasingly assertive way this continent is rethinking the design of cities — and the priorities of health and climate.
At least one American city is trying to follow suit. In January, New York began enforcing a first-in-the-nation fee — typically $9 — for drivers trying to enter Lower and Midtown Manhattan during peak hours. The goals were both to thin traffic and pump revenue into the busy and creaking city transit system. Advocates quickly called the program transformative, saying it resulted in less congestion without bruising the economy.
But the congestion pricing program has sparked anger from commuters in outer boroughs. And last month the Trump administration moved to halt it, with Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy calling it a “slap in the face” to working-class drivers and small-business owners.
The program’s future now hinges on a legal showdown.
Only a few other American cities — Chicago, San Francisco and Washington — have transit networks to make major car-reduction policies potentially viable. Some have floated the idea but not implemented it.
Outside of Europe, Singapore stands out for one of the most rigorous plans, involving vehicle quotas and charges during peak hours.
“The city’s development pattern has to be dense in order to make this work,” said Steven Cohen, a Columbia University vice dean who specializes in sustainability, politics and environmental management.
In Europe, some of the programs are framed in explicitly environmental terms, with an emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2022, the transport sector accounted for one-quarter of emissions in the European Union. Many cities also highlight the importance of reducing air pollution, including fine particulate matter, which policymakers describe as a silent urban killer.
But whatever the rationale, virtually every major European city is imposing some kind of rule. Milan has a system similar to New York’s, charging for access to the city core — while entirely banning older, highly polluting vehicles. London charges vehicles that don’t meet emissions standards, in what it calls the “largest clean-air zone in the world.” The programs are not just the purview of liberal Western Europe: Warsaw, Poland, and Sofia, Bulgaria, recently adopted similar schemes.
Even little Italian villages have added vehicle restrictions to reinforce their historic feel.
And the Netherlands just broke ground on a 12,000-person neighborhood that will be entirely car-free. The neighborhood, known as Merwede, will be connected by public transport to Utrecht, a medium-size city that — perhaps no surprise — has a low-emissions zone of its own.
“We think we can create much more quality in every sense to place the cars out of this area,” said Mirjam Schmüll, a program manager involved with the Merwede project. Residents, she said, could have access to garages outside the neighborhood, but ideally wouldn’t need them very often.
Perhaps the most elaborate and transformative effort has come in Paris, where Hidalgo, a Socialist, was elected mayor in 2014. Since then, Paris has banned the most-polluting vehicles from the city, eliminated 50,000 parking spaces and added hundreds of miles of bike lanes. It turned a bank of the Seine from a busy artery into a pedestrian zone, and closed off the famed Rue de Rivoli to traffic.
The latest step came in November when four central arrondissements, or districts, were closed to through traffic.
Journeys by car in Paris have dropped by about 45 percent since 1990.
The city has now become a source for striking before-and-after photos: of clogged streets that have transitioned into tree-lined areas where people can walk and play.
“The radical transformation in the recent 10 years is essentially to transform the lifestyle of Parisians,” said Carlos Moreno, a professor at Paris’s Sorbonne University who has advised Hidalgo and who devised the concept of the “15-minute city” — putting residents within walking, bicycling or transport distance of everything they need.
For Europeans, the personal car isn’t quite the totem of liberty it is in America. But the car crackdown has still been met with outcry: raucous town-hall meetings, protests, even the vandalism of cameras used for enforcement. Conservative papers in Britain have described a “war on motorists.” In his 2023 book, London Mayor Sadiq Khan described an “extensive campaign” on social media to drum up opposition to London’s “Ultra Low Emissions Zone.” Khan also wrote that he was sent a bullet in the mail amid protests over the program.
In Sweden, Stockholm several months ago had wanted to designate a 20-block upscale area as a “Zero Emission Zone” — meaning, essentially, that it could be accessed only by electric vehicles. But the plan was held up by a legal challenge from a business group, which cited the risk of “reduced attractiveness of city centers” and job losses.
Indeed, Stockholm was one of the first European cities to introduce vehicle restrictions — in 1996, a time when the continent was first confronting the problem of heavy smog. In 2008, the European Union’s parliament set air-quality limits, including for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which can burrow into lungs and cause respiratory disease.
“We are a continent of regulation. We regulate, and then things happen,” Stoll said.
London says that PM2.5 levels have fallen, and that nitrogen dioxide — a pollutant stemming from combustion — is 53 percent lower than it would have been without the restrictions. One recent study, examining the English city of Bradford, attributed a reduction in hospital admissions for respiratory cases to the city’s clean-air policies.
Moreno advises cities to think about transportation options stacked in a pyramid, with the best choices — walking, cycling, public transportation — at the wide bottom.
“It’s not about a war on cars,” he said.
But yes, he said, cars should be the option of last resort.