E-transport boom could see first major European city go car free in 2020

[rooster59]

E-transport boom could see first major European city go car free in 2020

By Sonia Elks

 

A woman parks her bike beneath boxes of daffodils on a bridge in Amsterdam, Netherlands April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Coombs

 

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Next year will see the first major European city to ban private cars, a leading tech investor has predicted, saying a boom in electric-powered bikes and scooters was driving a green "revolution".

 

Norwegian capital Oslo and bike-friendly Amsterdam in the Netherlands are both candidates to become the first to go car-free in 2020, while France could follow in five years, said Martin Mignot of investment capital firm Index Ventures.

 

"People are just realising that congestion and pollution have reached a tipping point and that you can't just add more roads – space is very finite and a private car is just not a very efficient way of moving people around," he said.

 

"There is a genuine technological revolution ... Those(electric) vehicles are the missing link in the transport grid."

 

Major cities including Paris, Bogota and Jakarta have experimented with car-free days in an effort to cut air pollution and open up streets usually dominated by traffic.

 

Meanwhile, a drop in the price of batteries has enabled the creation of a wide range of relatively affordable electric vehicles that open up the city to travellers, said Mignot.

 

Electric bikes and scooters for rent through companies such as Bird and Lime are now a common sight in many city centres and Mignot said they could fill gaps in public transport.

 

Index Ventures, an early backer of Skype which currently has some $1.6 billion invested in funds, has put "a very fair amount" into mobility firms including Bird and Cowboy bikes, said Mignot, though he declined to give figures.

 

Mignot said the e-transport sector was still very young, with companies rapidly refining their products as they learn from their early years and the technology develops, while there was also a need for city infrastucture to evolve.

 

Experts on cities agreed that urban planners were moving away from private cars.

 

"I am confident that the first major European city will go completely car free, at least in the city centre, by 2020," said Lucy Mahoney, a spokeswoman on walking and cycling for the C40 network of cities tackling climate change.

 

"Leading the way and demonstrating that going car free is the new norm will help alleviate the crippling pressures our cities face and rejuvenate urban spaces."

 

(Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-16

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[tebee]

Change comes very fast and unexpectedly sometimes !

 

Can't imagine anybody even thinking about this even a couple of years ago.

[fruitman]

The pickpockets in Amsterdam will be happy to hear this...but how are all the drugdealing gangs going to transport their merchandise? Will Amsterdam loose it's name as drug capital of the world?

[Tug]

I don’t know,how do you get your groceries home how do you do home improvement projects ect ect?

[StreetCowboy]

3 hours ago, Tug said:

I don’t know,how do you get your groceries home how do you do home improvement projects ect ect?

[zydeco]

And if you are disabled and unable to ride a scooter or bike? I guess you are banned from these city centers.

[DoctorG]

I have been car-free for the past 3 years but, as Tug mentions above, getting the bigger stuff home cannot be done without paying somebody to deliver.

[bristolboy]

47 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

I have been car-free for the past 3 years but, as Tug mentions above, getting the bigger stuff home cannot be done without paying somebody to deliver.

 

4 hours ago, Tug said:

I don’t know,how do you get your groceries home how do you do home improvement projects ect ect?

The article is about banning private cars, not commercial delivery vehicles.

[Enoon]

6 hours ago, tebee said:

Change comes very fast and unexpectedly sometimes !

 

Can't imagine anybody even thinking about this even a couple of years ago.

 

In the 1976 edition of his book, J M Roberts wrote that the two things he had learnt about History (with regard to it predicting the future) were that: "things tended to happen a lot more slowly and un-dramatically than expected and that things tended to happen a lot more quickly and dramatically than expected".

 

Free download of 2003 edition:

https://epdf.pub/the-new-history-of-the-world.html

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

4 hours ago, Tug said:

I don’t know,how do you get your groceries home how do you do home improvement projects ect ect?

Cargo bikes!

 

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/yuba-supermarche/

[bristolboy]

3 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

In the first edition of his book (1976) J M Roberts wrote that the two things he had learnt about History (with regard to it predicting the future) were that: "things tended to happen a lot more slowly and un-dramatically than expected and that things tended to happen a lot more quickly and dramatically than expected".

 

Free download of 2003 edition:

https://epdf.pub/the-new-history-of-the-world.html

 

 

I do wonder why so much attention is being paid to the opinion of a tech investor. Lots of their bets go wrong. It's just that on balance, they come out ahead.

[Enoon]

55 minutes ago, zydeco said:

And if you are disabled and unable to ride a scooter or bike? I guess you are banned from these city centers.

 

Amsterdam has a first class, accessible, public transport system of trams, buses and Metro.

 

https://www.citymetric.com/transport/12-reasons-amsterdam-has-best-transport-system-4264

 

Others need to catch up.

 

 

[Chomper Higgot]

56 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

I have been car-free for the past 3 years but, as Tug mentions above, getting the bigger stuff home cannot be done without paying somebody to deliver.

How does the cost of delivery compare with the cost of car ownership.

 

I realise you don’t own a car but my guess if you’d have to pay a lot out on delivery before you reach the ownership costs of a car.

[bristolboy]

13 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

How does the cost of delivery compare with the cost of car ownership.

 

I realise you don’t own a car but my guess if you’d have to pay a lot out on delivery before you reach the ownership costs of a car.

From what I read in his comment, I don't think he's in disagreement with what you write here.

[sawadee1947]

2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

How does the cost of delivery compare with the cost of car ownership.

 

I realise you don’t own a car but my guess if you’d have to pay a lot out on delivery before you reach the ownership costs of a car.

If you buy a sofa e.g. it's included delivery in Amsterdam as all commercial deliveries. Only private cars are banned. 

[Destiny1990]

E bikes no noise.

environment friendly.

Charging ur battery at home in 3 hours and can peddle 50 km without much effort yourself.

Coming to Thailand 2050?

[evadgib]

I used one of these as a kid for fishing, ferreting & a Sunday paper round ????

(They're extremely heavy!)

[car720]

Hate to say it but China leading the way with this.

[Tug]

On 11/16/2019 at 12:28 AM, Chomper Higgot said:

Cargo bikes!

 

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/yuba-supermarche/

Hi chomper the stuff I do requires a truck and trailer generally for some this may work but for guys like me not so well also farmers contractors ect ect but belive me when they perfect a battery that gives me the range I’ll be on it!!!with an electric truck!!!

[thaibeachlovers]

On 11/16/2019 at 1:56 PM, rooster59 said:

Next year will see the first major European city to ban private cars, a leading tech investor has predicted, saying a boom in electric-powered bikes and scooters was driving a green "revolution".

 

Does it never rain in the city of choice, do people not need to take a weeks worth of family groceries home at one time, can babies ride bikes, does that tech INVESTOR stand to make loadsacash out of it?

 

Better to invent a small car with a luggage space, and then make the city big car free, which can only be a good thing, but without an enclosed vehicle available it will be rejected, as it should be

[thaibeachlovers]

On 11/17/2019 at 12:38 AM, Destiny1990 said:

E bikes no noise.

environment friendly.

Charging ur battery at home in 3 hours and can peddle 50 km without much effort yourself.

Coming to Thailand 2050?

No noise = dangerous to others

polluting to make and dispose of everything on and in them

I can fill my car in 5 minutes. I scorn your 3 hours.

can a wheelchair user that currently uses a car/ van use a bike? Can they use their arms for 50 km; could you?

[thaibeachlovers]

On 11/18/2019 at 10:12 AM, Tug said:

Hi chomper the stuff I do requires a truck and trailer generally for some this may work but for guys like me not so well also farmers contractors ect ect but belive me when they perfect a battery that gives me the range I’ll be on it!!!with an electric truck!!!

What about charging time? Do you want to stop working while the battery takes hours to recharge? Do they have batteries that will last 7 hours, which was a journey I did regularly?

[thaibeachlovers]

On 11/16/2019 at 3:29 PM, Tug said:

I don’t know,how do you get your groceries home how do you do home improvement projects ect ect?

Yes, can I transport 3 100x25 3.5 meter long pieces of wood on a bike, like I did on my car the other day?

Don't anyone say I could employ someone else with a truck to do so, as why should I have to pay someone to do what I can do myself now?

[steve187]

On 11/16/2019 at 6:38 PM, Destiny1990 said:

E bikes no noise.

environment friendly.

Charging ur battery at home in 3 hours and can peddle 50 km without much effort yourself.

Coming to Thailand 2050?

where is the electric going to come from to charge the amount of batteries required to go car less.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 11/17/2019 at 12:50 AM, evadgib said:

I used one of these as a kid for fishing, ferreting & a Sunday paper round ????

(They're extremely heavy!)

That wouldn't even take half a family weekly groceries, let alone 2 small children as well.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, steve187 said:

where is the electric going to come from to charge the amount of batteries required to go car less.

Coal fired power stations like they use in Holland.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 minutes ago, steve187 said:

where is the electric going to come from to charge the amount of batteries required to go car less.

Where is the raw material to make all those batteries going to come from?

[sirineou]

11 minutes ago, steve187 said:

where is the electric going to come from to charge the amount of batteries required to go car less.

I will tell you where it will not come from. It will not be generated in the city where people live, where now cars burn their gas and pollute.

[Credo]

If you read the first sentence, it's clear it's talking about the use of private cars.   I very much doubt the fire brigade will arrive on bikes with buckets.   I doubt if someone drops over in the street, an ambulance scooter will take them to the hospital.   

The same with building repairs, road maintenance etc.   I don't think a group of men on motorcycles with shovels will start fixing a broken water main.

 

[Destiny1990]

47 minutes ago, steve187 said:

where is the electric going to come from to charge the amount of batteries required to go car less.

U charge the portable battery in ur home and or at work. Same as u charge ur phone.