"How a compact metro area of 37 million people manages to feel this relaxed isn’t really a mystery: the city declared war on cars, and then won that war. Citywide, there are 0.32 cars per household, half the level in New York or London."
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Oh, and all the ongoing road-building projects do not exactly scream "war on cars". The city can't even keep the damn things off the relatively small number of dedicated cycle lanes it has condescended to build.
I have no idea on statistics, but the further you go beyond central Tokyo (where the author of the piece lives), the more auto-centric it becomes. Main roads in the outer suburbs are typically lined with drive-throughs, malls with huge carparks, tyre stores etc.
Can confirm! I was in Tokyo just a few weeks ago. I never have to walk more than a few hundred meters to hit a bus or train station to connect to anywhere in the entire city. And on those walks, there’d be temples, parks, river paths and epic places to eat and shop. ❤️ Tokyo & Japan!
I just got back from Taipei. I used to play on narrow streets like this in the Daan District between NTU & NTNU. Daily car parking on the street costs ~30x as much as moped parking. Bike parking is free. Speed limit 20 kph (12 mph). Maybe that's why we had space to play
It is! When I was little, cars were uncommon so we played in the whole street. Notice people are walking both in and out of the painted sidewalk. Cars turn around corners really slowly bc they don't know what they will encounter.
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