The car-free movement is a social movement advocating for car-free cities, seeking to establish places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated in favor of walking, cycling and public transit. Its roots reach back to the early twentieth-century resistance to automobile expansion: Los Angeles became the first American city to legally subordinate pedestrians to motor vehicles in 1925, and organized opposition followed, including the 1922 Walkers' League in Los Angeles and mid-twentieth-century baby carriage blockades, protests by mothers demanding safer streets for children. The movement today draws together social activists, urban planners, transportation engineers and environmentalists working to reshape urban design against traffic congestion and sprawl and toward environmental sustainability and community vitality, with visible expressions including Critical Mass group bicycle rides, begun in San Francisco in 1992, and car-free days now held in cities worldwide.
Facts
Core ConcernAdvocacy for cities where car use is greatly reduced or eliminated in favor of walking, cycling and transit. 1 FAQs
What is the car-free movement, and what early organized resistance to automobile dominance took place in Los Angeles?
The car-free movement works to reduce or eliminate motorized vehicle use in favor of walking, cycling and transit; early organized resistance included the 1922 Walkers' League in Los Angeles, a few years before the city legally subordinated pedestrians to motor vehicles in 1925.
The car-free movement is a social movement advocating for car-free cities, seeking to establish places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated in favor of walking, cycling and public transit. Its roots reach back to early twentieth-century resistance to automobile expansion: the Walkers' League formed in Los Angeles in 1922, and mid-twentieth-century baby carriage blockades saw mothers protest for safer streets for children, even as Los Angeles became the first American city to legally subordinate pedestrians to motor vehicles in 1925. Today the movement draws together social activists, urban planners, transportation engineers and environmentalists, with visible expressions including the Critical Mass group bicycle rides begun in San Francisco in 1992 and car-free days now held in cities worldwide.
Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Car-Free Movement
WikipediaHistory section
In 1925, Los Angeles became the first American city to adopt a traffic ordinance that subordinated pedestrians to motor vehicles on city streets, and this became a model for the whole nation.
Lead section
The goal of the movement is to establish places where motorized vehicle use is greatly reduced or eliminated, by converting road and parking space to other public uses and rebuilding compact urban environments where most destinations are within easy reach by other means, including walking, cycling, public transport, personal transporters, and mobility as a service.
View the Source Wikipedia: Fare-Free Public Transport
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