Think about a pedestrian/cyclist being hit by a car: the person with the lowest carbon footprint, space use, noise and pollution production hit by a high carbon, space-guzzling, noisy and polluting box of metal.
Roads are for **people**, not for cars - cars have their uses, but that does not imply that the whole system should be built to satisfy their merest whim.
So well done Wales for making 20mph the default speed limit in residential/built-up areas.
https://www.gov.wales/introducing-default-20mph-speed-limits
@helenczerski Well, yeah, but that works a lot better in places where the roads descend from ancient footpaths.
But in cities built around cars, it would just be a nightmare.
@helenczerski The issue with cities built around cars is that everything is spread out. You may need to go miles before getting to a main road. (This is more of an issue in the US than the UK for obvious reasons.)
So, even if you add biking infrastructure, the services and places you need to be are too far away.
@LouisIngenthron But the cities that were "built around ancient footpaths" adapted to cars, and are now starting to transition back. Amsterdam was a deeply car-based city until they decided consciously to make a change 30 years ago. There's no reason why cities designed around cars can't adapt to a less car-based existence - just look at all the space the roads take up! That offers lots of flexibility. We just need to try harder and to think and experiment more.