Car with horse existed when theses road were designed.
It's even a paved road, I find it a bit sad they tore down the pavement.
There is even a photo somewhere on internet where you can see a dead horse with kids playing next to it as car pass by.
Exemple of a photo 100year ago in Paris:
Pedestrian can walk on pavement.
I'd like to remind that cars were banned in center of Rome, because there was too much cars.
And I'm talking about the Rome of 2000 years ago.
They might have not suffered the noise of cars as much as today, but accordig to that photo they did constantly suffer the noise of lowercase a everywhere
I am all on board with "Fuck Cars", but also your street is always going to look nicer with bright overhead lighting during midday, relative to the dreary shadows of the early morning.
The buildings on the left have sunbeams on them and you can see the bright sky reflected on the car windscreens. The bottom pic has a cloudy sky but has been brightened and saturated as much as the top pic has been dulled and greyed.
Making a road with shops and services pedestrian-only will greatly increase foot traffic and people shopping there. Now people will walk down the street and stop in places they happen to find. In cars people who to know about it and specifically choose to go there.
Even though I only go to stores that I planned to go to ahead of time, this switch is great because it means things are closer together and there is roughly the same amount of walking as driving to multiple stores and needing to walk from the lot into each one. Plus the view is better!
There's a spot not far from my house that's right across a little pedestrian bridge. The shops are lined up along a walking path and face a small park. They do enormous amounts of business, particularly in the evenings when kids are out playing and adults can simply walk across the street to grab dinner or visit the sports bar.
Pretty sure Sadiq khan tried to pedestrianise Oxford street but the conservative local council were like no actually we quite like the most polluted street in Europe as is thanks a lot I prefer the palpable scent of particulate emissions and nitrous oxide, how else am I going to enjoy my boarded up empty shops? Tories man, you know what they’re like
As I understand it, the big problem with any Oxford Street pedestrianisation is the diverted bus routes. Everything would have to go down Wigmore Street, which would have to be converted back to a two-way street.
Let’s try that here in Minneapolis. See how well that works with several inches of snow cover and sub-zero temps.
I’m def not a “I love cars” kind of person, but a heated and protected pod to transport me, my family and friends, my belongings and anything I purchase is a necessity. Can’t just “pop to the grocery” every day or two in winter conditions even if I didn’t live miles away from any viable store with food.
I grew up in northern Minnesota. Fuck whatever your saying. You absolutely can pop to the grocery. It's disingenuous AF to say this place is inhospitable without automobiles. The Anishinaabe have managed it. I managed it. Litteral millons do.
What you meant to say is "surviving in a place like Minnesota requires planning and community" I'm MN born and raised. I haven't owned an automobile for 15years. It's very possible.
And seeing how there's ten billion souls on this planet, rapidly fucking it up, it would behoove us to live with less resource expenditures. Any way you stack it up, from leaded gasoline to the sleekest EV, the personal automobile is a gluttonous, selfish act. We can live without them, your very existence is proof. Ride the bus, snow shoe, ski, walk bus, fuck.
I like how you included fuck with the modes of transportation. Now I'm imagining some sort of tricycle or quadcycle that harnesses thrusting motion to propel you.
The answer is it would work much better because you wouldn't have the parked cars wasting space and making it difficult for the plows to clean the street quickly.
I walk to my grocer frequently (1-2 per week) in northern ontario and have no difficulties due to snow or ice. I use a small backpack and some cotton bags to carry my grocceries. I have a nice coat and good boots.