In the middle of the road, children play among fountains. On near-by benches couples sit holding hands. Great tubs of red, purple and yellow flowers decorate the route. There is no traffic noise, no danger from speeding vehicles, no suffocating carbon monoxide.
A dream world? Not at all. It’s one of the new pedestrian ways being created by town planners all over Europe. From London to Vienna, Rome to Stockholm, the tide of the car which has threatened to engulf our cities is finally being turned back.
Consider Gothenburg, Sweden’s second city and largest port. Between 1950 and 1970 traffic increased almost 15-fold. Gothenburg’s authorities soon realized that cars were threatening to choke the city centre, and in 1970 they asked town planner Curt Ellsberg to find a solution.
For his model Ellsberg used a “zone system” which had been established in the German city of Bremen a few years earlier. He divided Gothenburg’s core into five sections, enclosed by a ring road. A meter motorist to get from one zone to another without first driving back on to the ring road. Next, a system of fast-moving trams and buses was established along the zone border lines.
Then a network of pedestrian streets, full of flowers, fountains, trees and grassy plots, was established through the city’s heart. Pavement café’s sprouted from restaurants; waterfalls began to splash. One brand-new section of mall was roofed over and heated to make shopping, sitting or strolling a pleasure even in bad weather. There are long-range plans for half a dozen similar pedestrian areas, so that the whole city will eventually be a series of inter-connected oases.
