The world in 2050 [The real future of the Earth] - Full Documentary BBC HD
The German city of Hamburg has announced its intention to become car-free over the next two decades, it is an ambitious idea, but city officials feel obviously that staff motorcar does not fulfill a function that walking, cycling and public transport can not.
The aim of the Hamburg project is to replace roads with Gruenes Netz or green open areas interconnected network covering 40 of the city According to the official website, parks, playgrounds, sports fields, functions and cemeteries will connected to form a network, which will allow people to navigate the city without the use of cars.
Banish the car in urban areas is becoming a common trend in many European cities London imposes a burden of congestion of private vehicles entering the city center during peak hours The Danish capital Copenhagen is building bicycle highways radiating downtown.
These combined developments may worrying reading for driving enthusiasts is the era of the personal car on.
In the century since the Ford Model T was introduced in 1908, the number of vehicles worldwide swelled to over a billion, but according to recent research, the growth spurt may have peaked.
Professor Michael Sivak at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has just published a series of reports looking car use and its impact on the environment.
His calculations show that the engine in the United States may have peaked in 2008, and the numbers have been falling since the same holds when the global economic recession and its negative impact on car sales, is considered .
Sivak speculates that a number of factors may contribute to the trend, which makes it probably more than a passing fad They include increased telecommuting or working from home and the movement of returnees to urban centers in China , Beijing and Shanghai look at the plans to limit the number of new vehicles being registered to curb the growth that his movement more cities turn to, especially in the US, I think it is fair use our data to examine similar trends for example, in France or in England, but I am very careful not to extrapolate to developing countries, said Sivak.
Yet another recent report from IHS Automotive analysts said cities of the Asian market and developing countries will not reach the car motorization levels enjoyed in the West.
Another way to address the issue is to look at the number of households without a car in the United States, the percentage is less engine increases.
New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, each have more than 30 households without light vehicle, said Sivak In fact, figures show that 56 households in New York that tops the list n not have a car, I think it surprising for most people it is surprising to me, and I am in the company.
Maybe it's not so surprising in cities like New York, which have extensive networks of transport and where parking costs can far exceed the purchase cost of a Metro ticket but is not the whole story in Los Angeles, only 12 households are less car and in affluent San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley, it is only 5. 8
What impact does this have In another study by Sivak, he pulls a flying surprising conclusion is actually better than driving, when the amount of energy used is measured in fact, everything looks better than driving a long distance train uses 1,668 BTUs per mile Planes use in 2691, and cars a staggering 4218 BTU or British Thermal Unit, a mile individual is an energy measure used to move a person from a mile.
The balance has changed since the 1970s, when the energy per mile person was about twice for the flight to conduct Now cram more people on planes makes the most effective person.
The load in airplanes, for better or worse, has increased, while the load in cars decreased says Sivak So you spread the energy in fewer people in a car.
To meet the flight levels of emissions, the US auto fleet needs to be improved 21 5 Current average at least 33 mpg 8 mpg or carry 2 to 3 people per trip instead of January 38 people present said Sivak.
So Hamburg could be a sign of things to come Sivak offers an analogy.
I think it is an interesting target to aim for, I would compare it with a target in the field of road safety that was imposed by Sweden 20 years ago, he said their goal is to have zero fatalities traffic Now nobody expects it zero fatal accident on the road in the near future, but it is good to have a target driving towards.
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