Abstract
We describe the European planning approach to motorisation focusing on the historical experience of Barcelona and Paris. That is, we study how relatively large and dense cities had to change to accommodate the motor car and the consequences of such choices in terms of pollution, land use and traffic congestion. We also discuss the European approaches to de-motorisation to find that, in general and in comparison to Japan, they are micromanaged, overregulated and geographically localised in and around the city centres.
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Notes
- 1.
Fourth if London was to be included, Eurostat (2019).
- 2.
Haussmann was a high-ranking public servant, the prefect of the Seine department, working to the orders of Emperor Napoleon III. Haussmann’s alma mater was the Paris Conservatoire.
- 3.
See Carmona (2002) for a detailed account of Haussmann’s led urban transformation of Paris.
- 4.
An inner-city Parisian detached house, more like a little palace.
- 5.
That is usually the level immediately above the street, also called principal in Barcelona. Sometimes there is a mezzanine (entresol) in between the street level and principal.
- 6.
In the form of cavalry charges, if necessary, Carmona (2002). Barcelona lived through countless riots and rebellions in the nineteenth century. That was acknowledged, for instance, by Frederick Engels wrote in 1888 that Barcelona was “the city whose history records more struggle on the barricades than that of any other city in the world”, Eaude (2008).
- 7.
Valenti (2014).
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Guillen, P., Komac, U. (2020). Motorisation and De-motorisation in Europe. In: City Form, Economics and Culture. SpringerBriefs in Architectural Design and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5741-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5741-5_11
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