One misconception or question we see with some regularity around “car-free” spaces relates to emergency vehicles.
This is Drottninggatan, a traffic-reduced street in Örebro (a city in central Sweden). At any time of day and through the evening, you will see people leisurely walking across (or down) the street as well as constant bicycle flow. Select bus lines also have passage along the street as well as emergency vehicles and delivery trucks.
Regarding the role of delivery trucks and high-density urbanism, David Owen writes in ‘Green Metropolis’ (one of our current reads):
“A transit-and-walking city, by necessity, is also a truck city (…) It’s trucks that make efficient, high-density living feasible, and it’s high density, in turn, that makes urban truck use so efficient.” (pg. 153, ‘Green Metropolis’)
Do you have some interesting examples or observations regarding these issues in your area?
