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Car-free city improves health

By: Ebba Malmqvist

Car-free cities is an opportunity to reduce the health burden in cities. Society need to keep their eyes on the goal and make science-based decisions to get there.

Urban areas carry a large burden of respiratory diseases due to air pollution and high population densities. Moreover, car-dominated cities often lack opportunities to walk or bike, which reduces opportunities for physical activity that are fundamentally important for healthy lungs. Stricter EU air quality guidelines can push urban transformations to improve the respiratory health of citizens. This can include more public spaces for walking and cycling combined with measures to reduce air pollution (e.g., low-traffic neighbourhoods, superblocks, 15-minute cities and car-free cities).

In a recent report on respiratory health in The Lancet, Prof. Nieuwenhuijsen comments: “Often the problem is the absence of a shared vision of a better city, no clear rational such as better respiratory health, and pathways to get there. Too often citizens think that restrictions and costs are imposed by a city council to pester them. We need more co-creation and engagement to create and implement a vision of a sustainable, liveable and healthy city.”

The topic of opposition to cleaner cities is also raised by a psychologist in the Conversation and he says that we need to understand and move past the pestering online comments or criminal damage to Low-Emission-Zone cameras in London. This can be done by understanding that emotion can bias the process of arguing and reasoning, and even overwhelm objective information. The introduction of urban changes potentially raises issues that are deeply emotional for many people and are often linked to personal values. Disagreement based on emotion or value typically cannot be resolved, since how we feel about an issue is also a personal matter. According to a psychological theory known as dual process, thinking has two modes: system 1 (quick and emotional) and system 2 (measured and analytical). System 2 disagreement is based (more or less) on facts, which can be independently established. So, two parties should be able to agree on the relevant facts to reach a resolution. The problem arises with controversial decisions, people with extreme views are often more confident and therefore more likely to publicly comment in public debates. As a result, arguments based on values or emotions might be more visible than those that are based on facts or logic, leading to increasing polarization in public discourse. Value- and emotion-based discussion can be valuable in morality-based decision making. But many psychologists believe that individuals and society could benefit from more deliberative and fact-based thinking when dealing with controversial matters. A fact-based approach on restrictions for cars should focus on questions such as the impact on air quality, and whether there are sufficient support mechanisms for those who may be affected but lack the financial means to replace their vehicles.

Oslo is in the process of implementing arguably the most ambitious car-free project in Europe to date. Announced in 2015, Bilfritt Byliv, or ‘Car-Free City Life’, is considered to be the largest car-free city centre in Europe. The scheme has included the large-scale removal of public parking spaces, the closure of streets to cars, and measures to improve the quality of urban life. One lesson learnt was to implement physical measures (e.g., public seating, greenery) at the same time as more contentious changes (e.g., removal of parking), to highlight the benefits more immediately.

Ebba Malmqvist

The Lancet, October 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(23)00329-6

Erkenntnis October 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-022-00616-9

The Conversation, 11 October 2023, https://theconversation.com/expanding-londons-ulez-has-sparked-fractious...

IIIEE Theses 2019:39, https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=8996627&...

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