Automobili ubijaju gradove

Automobili protiv grada – možda previše pojednostavljen pristup ali skoro da je tako. Lagano ali sigurno, automobili ubijaju gradove. Posle dvehiljadite, moraće da se izabre – ili gradovi ili automobili, oboje ne može da se održi.
Ako se ništa ne učini, ako se ne nametne nova disciplina, drumski saobraćaj, posebno privatni automobili i kamioni će uništiti ne samo gradove, već i značajno doprineti destrukciji globalnog okruženja efektom staklene bašte.
Automobili ugrožavaju gradove bukom, neudobnošću, psihološkom i fizičkom nesigurnošću, manjkom pogodnog okruženja i društvenog prostora, zagađenjem vazduha. („Evropska urbanistička povelja“, 1992.)
Evropska urbanistička povelja (iz 1992. godine) definiše pravo gradjana u gradovima Evrope. Ona služi kao praktičan vodič za dobro upravljanje u gradovima u pitanjima stambene politike, urbanizma i arhitekture, javnog prevoza, energenata, sporta i zabave, zagadjenja i bezbednosti na ulicama.

From The European Urban Charter

4.1 THEME: Transport and mobility
Throughout history, man has striven to extend the radius of his activities and has always had, as a consequence, a determined incentive to improve transport techniques.
With each advance in transportation, human life has been altered; the effects of pedestrian, horse, railway, car, bus and merchandise transport, can be seen superimposed in today's cities.
The implications and importance of such mobility are many. Choices can be made about the environment in which one would wish to live and work, with whom one wishes to interact.
However, since its appearance in 1884, the car has often dominated transport policies, bringing in its train the degradation of public transport systems.
The car versus the town - perhaps an over-simplistic view, but very nearly the case. Slowly but surely, cars are killing towns. By the year 2000, a choice will have to be made; it will be one or the other: both cannot be kept.
If nothing is done, if no new discipline is imposed, road traffic, particularly private cars and lorries, will destroy not only towns, but contribute considerably to the destruction of the global environment via the "greenhouse" effect.
Cars threaten towns through noise, discomfort, psychological and physical insecurity, loss of amenity and social space, atmospheric pollution.
Although it enables well-off inhabitants to leave the town, there is a price to be paid in additional heavy commuting patterns. Furthermore, the organisation of efficient and economically-viable public transport in sprawling suburban areas that come as a consequence is often impossible.
Overall, it brings about cultural and social loss; it contributes to the decline of the town as a place for living, for contact, activities and culture.
Dealing with this problem is not a case of an overly isolationist or egotistical attitude of town dwellers directed against other types of human settlement or other less congested areas. It is rather a contribution by them to a common effort to save the planet from the threat of the adverse side-effects of excessive growth.
PRINCIPLES
1. It is essential that the volume of travel, particularly by private car, be reduced
Extensive land use and the separation of functions, the two planning principles which have been advocated and applied over the last forty years, have led to the current impasse, whereby (a) towns themselves are congested and abandoned by the middle classes; (b) sprawling suburban areas have been created where the organisation of efficient, economically-viable public transport is virtually impossible. Thus, the key conquest of the 19th and early 20th centuries, carried to current extremes, produces perverse effects and has become as much a liability as an asset. In its most tangible and visible form, it imposes unavoidable travel for citizens living in one place, working in another, seeking essential services and goods in yet another, transporting their children to and from schools elsewhere.
The key solution is a new land use planning strategy, both inside the town, favouring the "compact" town and outside the town, aiming at the integration and juxtaposition of housing, employment and other functions.
The growth of small and medium-sized firms in the manufacturing, tertiary and quaternary sectors should be associated with housing and residential areas in their immediate surroundings. "Computer based" work at home is not a solution because of its adverse desocialising effect.
2. Mobility must be organised in a way which is conducive to maintaining a liveable town and permitting co-existence of different forms of travel
It is clearly neither possible nor advisable to eliminate travel, but it should be feasible to reorganise the different forms of travel within an overall aim of creating a town in which it is a pleasure to live, rather than following specific sectoral objectives.
This means giving as much priority to public and/or collective transport, bicycles, pedestrians as to the individual transport of people and goods. It means restrictions on access by heavy traffic, whether delivering goods or not. It means the examination of innovative measures to control street use, for example, the alternating use of both time and space; part-time pedestrian use; alternating hours, days, periods of the week or of the year. It means the creation of cycle paths; carefully planned pedestrian zones; out-of-town parking, accompanied by frequent low-cost, safe and reliable public transport to reach central urban areas.
3. The street must be recovered as a social arena
The loss of the street as a social, living space contributes to the decline of a town and an increase in insecurity.
Improved safety, security and social harmony therefore means the physical recovery of the street, through broader pavements; pedestrian precincts; control of traffic flows through appropriate street planning and layout; the careful use of one-way streets.
It means the protection and upgrading of open space through high quality and durable redevelopment; good quality street furniture, public signposts and commercial signs; facade regulation; provision of vegetation, greenery, water, fountains, statues and sculpture.
It means the development of attractive, high quality private, commercial or public activities on pavements, terraces and cafe frontages.
It means the elimination as far as possible of extraneous noise.
4. A sustained educational and training effort is required
Significant changes cannot be brought about without a revision of behavioral patterns by individual citizens, whose increasing concern for the environment is not always matched by an equivalent willingness to change their own ingrained behavioral patterns.
Local authorities have a clear responsibility to support and develop consciousness-raising campaigns, in order both to shift behavioral patterns and inculcate in town dwellers the belief that the street belongs to them, is communal property, but that as a corollary, the street must be used harmoniously and respected.
 
4.2 THEME: Environment and nature in towns
Far too often, many present day towns are agglomerations of stone, concrete, steel, glass and asphalt, with, where they exist, generally monotonous stretches of grass or wasteland of little use.
The atmosphere and the ground have been polluted with noxious elements and emissions from industry, energy plants, traffic and private households. Wildlife has been driven out of parts of towns and residential vicinities.
Never before, therefore, has it been as urgent to establish nature conservation areas and develop the use of vegetation as an element in planning of open spaces and districts. They give each town its character, furnish it with an interesting dimension, have a decisive and recognisable influence on the overall townscape, without which a city loses parts of its individuality.
Towns must have "lungs" to enable people to escape from the built environment and experience nature. Vegetation and animals are part of the self-development of the individual and enable children born in an urban environment to come into contact with nature.
Local authorities should be good housekeepers of their natural heritage. They have a responsibility to improve resource-management, attain environmental quality, protect natural systems by stimulating clean and healthy local production, transport and consumption.
Above all, it should be recognised that Nature and Town are not mutually exclusive concepts.
PRINCIPLES
1. Public authorities have a responsibility to husband and manage natural and energy resources in a coherent and rational manner
The principle of sustainable development requires that local and regional authorities accept fully their responsibilities in using limited resources (energy, water, air, soil, raw materials, food) and equally assume responsibility for dealing within their own boundaries with pollution, domestic and toxic waste, produced by them, rather than shifting them to other areas or leaving them as a legacy for future generations.
An increasing number of towns seek their resources from elsewhere, often causing disruption at source. Where possible, they should keep to derive their resources from within, the town being viewed as a complete ecosystem. Technical improvements and innovative measures, eg garden allotments, compost sites,
small-scale domestic heat and power plants, use of solar and wind energy, can be used to husband resources and reduce the strain on municipal budgets.
2. Local authorities should adopt policies to prevent pollution
Towns suffer heavily from pollution deriving from industry, traffic and private households, particularly domestic heating.
Temporary, short-term measures - eg, discharging solid and water wastes into rivers and lakes, burning or recycling waste, should be replaced by reduction of emission at source, application of clean technology, appropriate traffic management systems, use of alternative fuels, etc.
New industries should be required by local authorities to select and avoid certain materials, re-use packaging materials, develop alternative energy resources. Local construction industry should be encouraged, via building codes, to use materials conducive to health and production of a good indoor climate in buildings.
However, the development of new technology and improvement of legislation is not enough, without an informed public opinion applying pressure on the political process. The role of information is thus crucial.
This implies provision of information about clean technology to local firms; a network of information and advisory centres; pioneering new approaches.
Equally, consumers can be informed on emission reduction, the use of appropriate indoor material, the avoidance of certain packages and cleaning substances.
3. Local authorities have a responsibility to protect nature and green spaces
Green areas, nature conservation and landscape programmes are fundamental elements in urban areas, contributing to air quality and a decent urban climate.
Wild plants, biological gardening, choice of appropriate species, the re-use of particular sites, eg overgrown cemeteries, riverbanks, railway sidings, etc, can accommodate a wide spectrum of flora and fauna, supporting their own systems.
Greening roofs, walls, courtyards, etc, can create a variety of habitats for different plants and animals. City farms and study gardens for children play a valuable role in the establishment of direct contact with nature - essential if a responsible relationship with nature and natural resources is to be created.
Priority areas for nature protection should be established via an analysis of local conditions (biotope mapping). The use of vegetation in open spaces should be encouraged and should reflect local, historic and natural characteristics.
4. Nature conservation is a factor in developing community involvement and pride
Vegetation can be used as a means for stimulating community and individual pride in one's locality and an identification with it. This can be done through the development of allotments, roof and winter gardens, adventure playgrounds, recovery of semi-public areas for biotopes around tenement blocks, green trails, nature and school gardens and field study centres.

Preuzmite Evropsku urbanističku povelju na engleskom