Quote:
Originally Posted by mpd8488
The decision of which areas should be car free should not under any circumstances be left to politicians alone.
City planners would need to be hired to determine the effects on traffic, congestion, the local economy, tourism, and the ability for emergency services to still have access everywhere so that the politicians could actually put out some informed proposals rather than some B.S. that does nothing more than look good to their constituents.
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I agree.
One point is however to be considered. Back then when the large pedestrianisation wave swept over Vienna, of course the effected people were asked and studies were made.
Fact is however, that the shop owners at those affected streets strongly opposed the project. If the politicians had given in to their resistance many great parts of Vienna might be instead traffic hells today.
The pedestrian zones were forced somewhat on the shop owners, at least the first ones. Otherwise the project would have never taken off. As the fear to loose all customers due to the strictly reduced reachability by car in those streets was far to large. You have to consider that people still believed that "car friendliness" is what a city should be changed accordingly.
And what happened? Well, today the shop owners would barricade their streets if anyone would dare to touch "their" pedestrian zone. It was a huge success and no one, really no one misses the better street layout for cars from times before the pedestrianization.