“Car-free” here seems to be defined as “large cities tend to have congestion charges and/or traffic management schemes”, which seems slightly alarmist. I live

“Car-free” here seems to be defined as “large cities tend to have congestion charges and/or traffic management schemes”, which seems slightly alarmist. I live in a city (Dublin) which recently made some very modest traffic management changes, with the result that the bus system has _dramatically_ improved (at least once Dublin Bus figured out that they had to change their schedules; there was a slightly farcical period where it was common for some routes to stop for 10 minutes to stay on schedule, because a key point that was previously almost unnavigable at peak times had become free-flowing). The buses are the length of three small cars, and hold a hundred people. It just makes sense to give them priority, from a volume perspective if nothing else.