British media: The era of "car is king" has ended, let us accept it early

The British "Guardian" article on August 30, the original title: The era of "car is king" has ended. Let us accept cars that were once symbolized by convenience, freedom, and status as early as possible. The "spokesperson". In many big cities, cars can be described as the curse of society and the environment: occupying public space, destroying the environment, and making cities unlimited expansion. This makes people have to re -examine the value of the car.

Traffic accidents are another major reason for cars. According to data from the World Health Organization, car accidents are the eighth cause of death of all ages and the primary cause of death of young people 5-29 years old in the world. At least 1.3 million people die in a car accident each year, and other 20 million to 50 million people are injured, and they usually cause expensive economic losses.

According to statistics, in the UK, 24,530 people were killed or seriously injured due to a car accident from 2020 to 2021, and their losses caused by traffic accidents each year were about $ 45 billion. In the United States, the traffic accident and its chain reaction caused a loss of nearly $ 1 trillion each year. From 2000 to 2017, more than 624,000 people died in a car accident.

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Today, high oil prices and taxes have allowed many young people to work hard in big cities to abandon car purchase. Global growth of car sales is evidence. Data show that the sales of cars in China, Russia and Germany are declining, and the sales of new British cars have declined for five consecutive months, which has led to the first time for the first time for more than a century for more than a century. At the same time, cheap public transportation has gradually become the first choice for everyone's travel. Ireland, Italy and other countries have reduced the costs of public transportation, and Germany has reduced the fares of public transportation by up to 90%. Spain announced that from September to the end of this year, some train routes will be operated for free.

In order to encourage everyone to travel green and safe, in addition to reducing the cost of public travel, many cities have opened a car ban area. Paris, Milan, Hamburg, Copenhagen, and many other European cities have issued a ban to prohibit cars from entering the designated neighborhood in the city center, and offenders will face high fines. Not long ago, nearly 50,000 citizens of Berlin asked the government to implement the world's largest "ban" of automobiles -the area where the vehicle entered was 88 square kilometers.

In the next 30 years, 70%of the population is expected to live in a dense community; at the end of this century, the global population will increase by 3 billion. The original limited urban space will usher in more population and infrastructure, which will mean that public transportation, sharing new energy vehicles, and electric bicycles will become a priority that people have to consider traveling.

It's time to re -examine the crisis of energy, environment and living costs caused by cars. People should be awakened, and the socio -economic system that is carried out around cars is undergoing disruptive changes. With the increasingly improved public transportation system and the gradual popularization of shared transportation, coupled with the increasing incidence of traffic accidents and increasingly serious environmental pollution, the era of traffic dominated by cars may accelerate. (Author John Vidal, translated by Xiao Tong)

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