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I'm from around Ghent in Belgium and study in Ghent and last year the city introduced a plan where no cars except for taxis and some public transport is allowed

I'm from around Ghent in Belgium and study in Ghent and last year the city introduced a plan where no cars except for taxis and some public transport is allowed inside of the city centre. It's absolutely awesome because Ghent is a student city and you can get anywhere in Ghent using the bike but you can also get anywhere by car by parking nearby in an underground parking lot and walking the rest of the way. But it has made it so much safer and easier for cyclists (and people on foot!) to just get around. Antwerp also recently introduced a measure where only cars with a low amount of "exhaust gases" (can't really find the proper name as of writing this) are allowed in the city centre. I haven't been there since, but it's also something I truly admire going into the future. I visited San Francisco last year and it was a true nightmare to get around in Mountain View by bike. I have never felt more unsafe on a bike in my entire life to be honest. I am driving on a bike without a biking lane next to cars that are going close to 100km/h. It's truly insane. Visiting other cities in the US as well have been awful from a cyclist's point of view compared to most of the European cities and cities from the Netherlands are amazing as well (something you don't hear very often from a Belgian). So all in all, please just ban the car in most places in the city imo or do something like Antwerp that drives (pun intended) people towards electric cars faster.

masklinn 9y ago
Louvain-la-Neuve also has an interesting take on this. Like Ghent it's a student city but it's also a planned city, and was built as a "two-levels" city, buildings sit on top of a huge concrete "slab" and topside is completely car-free, with roads & parkings downside. Not having to "burn" any surface on carspace makes the city pretty inherently walkable. One issue is I don't remember the public parkings providing electric plugs for EC.
- Cynddl 9y ago
  I still find that Louvain-la-Neuve have failed to build a city for cyclists, but I can't pinpoint exactly why. There are very few people who bike there, almost zero bike parkings despite being a car-free city. The city is small but still, some places are quite far by foot (>30 minutes walking from one side to the other).
  - masklinn 9y ago
    > I still find that Louvain-la-Neuve have failed to build a city for cyclists, but I can't pinpoint exactly why. That is definitely the case. I think they planned for a very walkable/human-scale city but made many of the passages just a bit too small, I remember side-roads where you can only walk two abreast and you have buildings/walls on both sides (at least some of the time) with pretty sharp cornering, that makes it very inconvenient and unsafe for cycling beyond a walking pace, definitely not safe to have pedestrians and cycles both going in both directions. I guess the planning could have benefited from a few cyclable "arteries"/ring roads.
roymurdock 9y ago
How does Ghent's supply chain/delivery system function? In the US we have huge vans or semis to deliver inventory. I was in Zermatt this Summer (no combustion-engine cars allowed) and everything /everyone is transported around in little electric golf cart type vehicles to reduce smog, which could block the town's view of the Matterhorn. Is it similar in Ghent?
- lucozade 9y ago
  Pedestrian-only town centres are getting pretty common. I can't speak for Ghent but it's fairly normal to have periods, early morning or late evening, where goods vehicles are allowed access. It's worth bearing in mind that the centres of a lot of European towns and cities are fairly small and not very vehicle friendly anyway. One of the advantages of being pre-industrial is that it can take less work to be pre-industrial again. I'd expect that, in general, doing this is the US will be harder than a lot of Europe as the towns just aren't built that way.
- pouetpouet 9y ago
  There are usually logistics centers on the fringe of the city. From there everything is dispatched on smaller city friendly vehicles. Small vans or ebikes like so https://www.dekra.net/media/newsletter/jpg/2017/ups-zustellfahrrad-muenchen-image-w490-h276.jpg https://www.dekra.net/media/newsletter/jpg/2017/ups-zustellf... or so https://www.ttm.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/8892_333.jpg https://www.ttm.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/8892_333.jpg
- Improvotter 9y ago
  Delivery by bike mostly when a car can't get to them. BubblePost is an example.
Sholmesy 9y ago
I went to Ghent for the first time this year, just passing through. That place is amazing, getting rid of cars should be a #1 priority for city centres with ANY foot traffic.
grenoire 9y ago
> Antwerp also recently introduced a measure where only cars with a low amount of "exhaust gases" (can't really find the proper name as of writing this) are allowed in the city centre. I haven't been there since, but it's also something I truly admire going into the future. Amsterdam is introducing a similar system for scooters. Older scooters are no longer allowed in these designated zones due to 'environmental concerns.' I don't really buy that as the reason though; the government has been actively making the centre more and more bike-safe, and scooters are an active threat to cyclists due to the shared lanes.
- phicoh 9y ago
  Disclaimer: I don't particularly like mopeds, but I do care that (local) regulation is somewhat sane. This new regulation in Amsterdam is quite bad. The argument about shared lanes doesn't really apply to traditional mopeds because for most part they are not allowed on bike paths anyhow. And soon the slower mopeds that are allowed on bike paths will be moved to the main road as well. The weird thing about this new regulation is first of all that it applies to all of Amsterdam. So some north-south routes that go through Amsterdam will require insane detours. The second weird thing is that 4-stroke engines on moped, don't get much worse over time. It is weird to ban them just because the engine is over a certain age. But the worst thing is that an older 4-stroke engine is way better than a new 2-stroke engine. Getting rid of old 2-stroke engines is probably a good thing, but then banning all 2-stroke engines would make most sense. The scheme only makes sense from a government point of view: automatic license plate scanners can figure out the age of a moped and automatically send a fine. Pet peeve of mine: I find it completely bizar that city governments can arbitrarily ban vehicles. There should at least be national categories that could be banned. Not that every city comes up with completely arbitrary rules that from one day to another can have a significant impact on the owner of the vehicle.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

masklinn 9y ago

Louvain-la-Neuve also has an interesting take on this. Like Ghent it's a student city but it's also a planned city, and was built as a "two-levels" city, buildings sit on top of a huge concrete "slab" and topside is completely car-free, with roads & parkings downside. Not having to "burn" any surface on carspace makes the city pretty inherently walkable. One issue is I don't remember the public parkings providing electric plugs for EC.

Cynddl 9y ago
I still find that Louvain-la-Neuve have failed to build a city for cyclists, but I can't pinpoint exactly why. There are very few people who bike there, almost zero bike parkings despite being a car-free city. The city is small but still, some places are quite far by foot (>30 minutes walking from one side to the other).
- masklinn 9y ago
  > I still find that Louvain-la-Neuve have failed to build a city for cyclists, but I can't pinpoint exactly why. That is definitely the case. I think they planned for a very walkable/human-scale city but made many of the passages just a bit too small, I remember side-roads where you can only walk two abreast and you have buildings/walls on both sides (at least some of the time) with pretty sharp cornering, that makes it very inconvenient and unsafe for cycling beyond a walking pace, definitely not safe to have pedestrians and cycles both going in both directions. I guess the planning could have benefited from a few cyclable "arteries"/ring roads.

roymurdock 9y ago

How does Ghent's supply chain/delivery system function? In the US we have huge vans or semis to deliver inventory. I was in Zermatt this Summer (no combustion-engine cars allowed) and everything /everyone is transported around in little electric golf cart type vehicles to reduce smog, which could block the town's view of the Matterhorn. Is it similar in Ghent?

lucozade 9y ago
Pedestrian-only town centres are getting pretty common. I can't speak for Ghent but it's fairly normal to have periods, early morning or late evening, where goods vehicles are allowed access. It's worth bearing in mind that the centres of a lot of European towns and cities are fairly small and not very vehicle friendly anyway. One of the advantages of being pre-industrial is that it can take less work to be pre-industrial again. I'd expect that, in general, doing this is the US will be harder than a lot of Europe as the towns just aren't built that way.
pouetpouet 9y ago
There are usually logistics centers on the fringe of the city. From there everything is dispatched on smaller city friendly vehicles. Small vans or ebikes like so https://www.dekra.net/media/newsletter/jpg/2017/ups-zustellfahrrad-muenchen-image-w490-h276.jpg https://www.dekra.net/media/newsletter/jpg/2017/ups-zustellf... or so https://www.ttm.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/8892_333.jpg https://www.ttm.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/8892_333.jpg
Improvotter 9y ago
Delivery by bike mostly when a car can't get to them. BubblePost is an example.

Sholmesy 9y ago

I went to Ghent for the first time this year, just passing through. That place is amazing, getting rid of cars should be a #1 priority for city centres with ANY foot traffic.

grenoire 9y ago

> Antwerp also recently introduced a measure where only cars with a low amount of "exhaust gases" (can't really find the proper name as of writing this) are allowed in the city centre. I haven't been there since, but it's also something I truly admire going into the future. Amsterdam is introducing a similar system for scooters. Older scooters are no longer allowed in these designated zones due to 'environmental concerns.' I don't really buy that as the reason though; the government has been actively making the centre more and more bike-safe, and scooters are an active threat to cyclists due to the shared lanes.

phicoh 9y ago
Disclaimer: I don't particularly like mopeds, but I do care that (local) regulation is somewhat sane. This new regulation in Amsterdam is quite bad. The argument about shared lanes doesn't really apply to traditional mopeds because for most part they are not allowed on bike paths anyhow. And soon the slower mopeds that are allowed on bike paths will be moved to the main road as well. The weird thing about this new regulation is first of all that it applies to all of Amsterdam. So some north-south routes that go through Amsterdam will require insane detours. The second weird thing is that 4-stroke engines on moped, don't get much worse over time. It is weird to ban them just because the engine is over a certain age. But the worst thing is that an older 4-stroke engine is way better than a new 2-stroke engine. Getting rid of old 2-stroke engines is probably a good thing, but then banning all 2-stroke engines would make most sense. The scheme only makes sense from a government point of view: automatic license plate scanners can figure out the age of a moped and automatically send a fine. Pet peeve of mine: I find it completely bizar that city governments can arbitrarily ban vehicles. There should at least be national categories that could be banned. Not that every city comes up with completely arbitrary rules that from one day to another can have a significant impact on the owner of the vehicle.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]