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Hamburg plans to ban all cars from its center over the next 20 years to thousands of commuters bike Getty.
For a country that prides itself on having given the world the Mercedes and the Autobahn, it represents a great ideological second largest city of U-TURN Hamburg, Germany, plans to drastically reduce the number of cars in the center over the next 20 years and put thousands of commuters on bikes.
As part of an urban development program called Green Network bold, all vehicles will Verboten in significant swaths of the city by 2034 Instead people will move in the port city either by public transport or walk or bike along a series of idyllic greenways that are now laboriously created.
We envision a network doesn t help residents just to get from point A to point B in a sustainable manner, spokesman of the Hamburg Angelika Fritsch told the network planning ZME Science.
It will offer people opportunities hiking, swimming, water sports, enjoy picnics, restaurants, quiet and watch nature in the city experience.
A glance at the map of Green Network project helps explain what the Hamburg environmental planners have in mind On paper, the port city looks like a 3D representation of a human body is surrounded by the conurbation green space that spawn scores greenways as the thoroughfare leading to the city center.
The impression is reinforced by the large river Elbe and its tributaries that feed into the city center and beyond, and in many cases work as being more green water also leading to the city center some 30 planners work now full time on the network plans that cover some 17,000 acres.
Planned Green Network of Hamburg will cover about 40 percent of the entire area of the city and will connect parks, recreational areas, games burial grounds and gardens with an extensive network of green paths cities like London have a green belt, but the green network will be unique in covering an area from the periphery to the center, Ms Fritsch insists in 15 to 20 years it will be possible to explore the city exclusively on bike or on foot, she added.
The only European city to have attempted something similar is Copenhagen which is building a network of 26 so-called bicycle superhighways that spreads from the center to the periphery The project is part of the purpose of the capital Danish to become carbon neutral by 2050.
In Germany, the development of exclusively green Vauban suburb on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Freiburg has managed to completely prohibit residents cars can walk or cycle to the streets If they insist on maintaining their vehicles, they have to rent space in a multi-storey car park well outside the center.
Jens Kerstan, the parliamentary leader of the Green Party of Hamburg described the green network like a great idea, but we're still in the early stages, he said According to him, one of the main objectives is to adapt the city to climate change, a problem still neglected by many politicians, who since Fukushima, he said, were concerned about the commitment of Germany to abandon nuclear energy.
Our residents are quite progressive Many hamburgers are willing to give up their car, which is very rare in Germany, he said.
In addition to a Hamburg greener city quieter and more pleasant, the main ecological objective of the Green Network is helping the city to absorb CO2 emissions and in the process, to prevent flooding from the storm.
Green Party of Germany has done much to raise awareness of the challenge posed by global warming Although it is a major port of the North Sea, Hamburg median temperatures rose 1 2C to 9C in the past 60 years, sea levels rose 20 centimeters over the same period.
Hamburg has invested heavily in a defense system against the full flood that saved the city during the recent wave of hurricane force depression that swept much of Western Europe, but the sea level should rise to another 30 to 110 centimeters by 2100.
For an economic point of view, the Green Network has its critics Some argued that it could take the space that would be better suited for housing and business development, but Dr. Sven Schulze of the Hamburg Institute for international economics says the greening of Hamburg can also bring economic benefits, as it will attract highly skilled and educated people to the city, he claims.
How automatic ban Hamburg takes the cars on the road The Independent, auto, hamburg, taken.