Are American cities efficient the way they are designed now?:

Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2011. “The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities,” American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6)

Can we afford to overhaul our current city designs?

MTA Should Cut Waste To Spare Riders “Connor Harris City & State” September 17, 2020 Urban Policy NYC Tax & Budget Infrastructure & Transportation

 How can we shift our society away from cars?

Marta Bausells, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/superblocks-rescue-barcelona-spain-plan-give-streets-back-residents

I found several interesting articles while researching my topic. A few of them brought on even more questions that I had about the topic, but generally, my original three questions were answered while researching. For the first question, I found that the way we build more and more roads contributes to more city congestion, and therefore more traffic. My second question was if we could afford to invest in different modes of transport, therefore reducing the reliance on cars. I found that the MTA, the largest public transport agency in the U.S., bleeds cash every year on things it doesn’t need to spend on. Lastly, I tried to find how other cities around the world have tried to cut down on car usage, and found a shining example among all of them, which was the Superblock project in Barcelona, Spain. The Superblocks were set areas of the city that banned commercial vehicle through traffic, and only allowed private vehicles to go at speeds of 10 KM/H in certain roads. The idea gave rise to more open space for bikes and people, and business in this area skyrocketed. So, people have already tried shifting away from cars, and numerous pros have emerged because of it.