Byens Bro Foot and Cycle Bridge / Gottlieb Paludan Architects. Image © Gottlieb-Paludan Architects
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https://www.archdaily.com/1033362/urban-mobility-as-a-system-from-car-centric-to-human-centered-cities
Amid the traffic-clogged arteries of Los Angeles, where cars have long ruled the streets, the future of urban mobility is being questioned. The reorientation focuses not on simply removing cars or introducing new technology, but on envisioning the city as an integrated system in which people, places, and vehicles coexist in balance. Automobiles are no longer the unquestioned centerpiece of urban life; instead, they are treated as one component of a broader, multimodal transportation network. Design now seeks to prioritize human needs and experiences over vehicular dominance.
This shift toward systemic thinking marks a turning point in urban planning since the advent of the automobile itself. For over a century, cities bent their form to accommodate vehicles – building freeways that sliced through neighborhoods and streets that privileged traffic over tree canopy and walkability. Julia de Bono of BMW DesignWorks describes this as “local culture obliterated by inappropriately dominant infrastructures, harming people and place for the sake of somewhere else.” Today, the goal is to reverse that legacy, realigning mobility to serve human well-being, environmental quality, and social equity.
