The future of city centres For many of us, getting around in cities has undoubtedly become a great deal easier over the last few years. In the past few decades there had been a growing need for city councils to try and ease the traffic jams that were causing drivers’ frustration and creating problems of air pollution in city centres. Changing the travelling habits of thousands of commuters is not an easy thing to do, but in many places the strategies used to do this have been successful and traffic in city centres has become much more manageable, while air quality has improved. There are several reasons for this. 1 One is the increased use of ‘congestion charges’ for drivers of private vehicles using the roads in city centres. This has not always been a popular solution with motorists who need to travel into the city centre by car every day and don’t want to pay for this. Nevertheless, it has definitely been effective in significantly reducing the amount of traffic traveling through city centres. It has also been successful in improving the air quality in those areas, making them healthier for pedestrians to walk in. Taxi and bus drivers are also happy with the charges as the reduced traffic, which results from them, means they have more freedom to travel through previously busy streets in a reasonable time. 2 Another solution for reducing the volume of traffic in the city centres has been the introduction of pedestrianised zones. In these areas traffic is completely banned, apart from essential vehicles like police cars or vans unloading goods. We were used to seeing some pedestrianised streets in capital cities, for example around historical monuments, but now whole areas in some places have becoming no-car zones. A positive effect of this idea is that it has allowed the culture of street cafés and outdoor markets to flourish. These areas are now pleasant places to socialise and shop because the air is cleaner and the streets are quieter now that traffic is absent. 3 To enable commuters and visitors to access the town and city centres, many places now operate a ‘park and ride’ system, where travellers leave their cars at a special car park in the city suburbs and are brought into the centre by special buses or coaches. In many cases a large amount of investment has gone into improving public transport services to encourage people to leave their cars at home and travel by bus or train. In the largest cities extensions to rail networks and underground systems have been built and additional bus services have been introduced. Many of these solutions save people money, as well as reducing congestion. Some commuters have decided to swap their cars for bicycles! Not only is cycling to work good for their health, it’s also good for the environment. Councils have realised the advantages of encouraging people to use bikes and have put money into creating networks of cycle lanes to encourage more of their citizens to cycle more in greater safety. 5 Whilst getting around our cities is now easier than before and the problems of congestion and pollution have been partly alleviated, people are still asking whether we could go further. Ecologists are still demanding that more is done to reduce air pollution and hold up the example of cities in Scandinavia, which are cleaner and greener because of their stricter policies on traffic control. 6 Read the article about changing city centres. The headings have been removed from the article. Choose from the headings A–F the one which fits each gap. 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 A Get fit while travelling! B But have we done enough? C The problems of traffic in our cities D Charges for car owners – an effective solution? E Reducing traffic can be good for business F Public transport solutions