Imagining Life After Cars: Urban Design, Culture, and Change
A 60-minute session on how we get around, and on everything our cities, families and egos have built around the car: buying one, showing it off, parking it, honking it, sitting in it for two hours, closing streets to it, and the hard days it rescues. Is the car freedom, or a habit we stopped questioning? Twelve independent cards; open three or four.
The opening question
If you had to give up your car or bike for a whole year, would that feel more like a relief or a punishment?
Everyone in the room answers this in one line before any card is opened. Write the answers down; you will come back to them.
The cards
12 ways into the topic
Each card is independent. Your group votes on which to open, and four or five is plenty for an hour. Behind every card sit three prompts, one at a time, that only appear once it is opened on the board. Unopened cards keep for next time.
- 1
Whether To Buy A Car
You have a proper job now. Your parents keep asking when you'll buy a car. But you take the metro, autos and cabs, and honestly it works fine.
- 2
Cars As Status Symbols
A neighbour parks a shiny new SUV outside. Within a week, the whole building has noticed.
- 3
Walking In Indian Cities
You decide to walk to the shop ten minutes away. The footpath is broken, then blocked by a parked car, then a bike honks at you from behind.
- 4
Kids Going Out Alone
When your parents were ten, they walked to school and played on the street until dark.
- 5
Parking Outside Your House
Someone has parked in front of your gate again. You can't get your car out. When you complain, your neighbour shrugs and says the road is public.
- 6
Long Daily Commutes
Your office is fourteen kilometres away. On a good day it takes forty minutes. On a bad day it takes two hours, and you get home too tired to talk.
- 7
Why We Honk So Much
The light hasn't even turned green and the car behind you is already honking. Nobody can move. Everyone honks anyway.
- 8
Charging Cars For Busy Roads
Your city says cars must pay a fee to use the busiest roads at rush hour. Buses and bikes go free. You drive to work every single day.
- 9
Getting Home Safely At Night
It's ten at night. The metro is close, but the walk from the station is dark and empty. Your family says, “Just take a cab.”
- 10
Closing Streets To Cars
One Sunday morning, the main road near you is closed to cars. Kids cycle down the middle. Uncles do yoga where the buses usually run.
- 11
Family Road Trips
Five people in a small car. A long drive to a relative's wedding. Someone gets carsick, someone sings, and Dad refuses to ask for directions.
- 12
Why Cars Aren't The Villain
Everyone says cars are ruining our cities. But your grandmother can't climb the metro stairs. Your baby needs a doctor at midnight.
The line to leave with
If your city made it genuinely easy to live without a car, would you actually let yours go, or would you find a new reason to keep it?
More boards,more ways in.
Every discussion we have run has a board behind it. Browse them by topic.