Starting in 2019, Oslo Will Restrict the Use of Vehicles in its City Center (nytimes.com)

If you drive a car into the city center of Oslo next month, you shouldn't plan on staying long: There won't be any parking spots. The Norwegian capital is in the process of eliminating the remaining 700 street parking spots in its city center by the end of 2018 as part of its plan to turn the area into a car-free zone. From a report: "We're doing this to give the streets back to the people," Hanna Elise Marcussen, Oslo's vice mayor for urban development, said during a recent phone interview. "And of course, it's environmentally friendly." (The Scandinavian country, recently recognized as one of the world's most ecologically progressive nations, has plans to become carbon neutral by 2030 and halt the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2025.)

[...] In Oslo, the plan to remove cars from the city began in 2015 when a coalition of progressive political parties called for a city center free from vehicles. Similar plans have been met with resistance in places like Dublin, where local officials have proposed expanding that city's pedestrian zone, and Barcelona. Even in ecologically minded Oslo, it wasn't easy. "There's been quite a bit of public date, and there's been quite a lot of controversy, and it's been quite difficult to do this in a way that businesses and citizens can accept," Ms. Marcussen said.

Comments

If Norway wants to be environmentally friendly

[jfdavis668]

Stop pumping oil and gas out of the North Sea.

Re:If Norway wants to be environmentally friendly

[ShanghaiBill]

The oil/pension fund is investing more abroad than it does in Norway's own population.

That is the whole point of the fund. Norway has a small population and a small economy. An influx of that much capital would quickly result in the Dutch Disease of high inflation and economic strangulation of other industries.

This is what happened to Australia during the commodity boom of the 00s, before they set up the Australian Future Fund to prevent a recurrence.

Norway is doing the right thing by investing their windwall worldwide, and only repatriating the wealth at a rate that their economy can effectively absorb.

Re:If Norway wants to be environmentally friendly

[thegarbz]

Stop pumping oil and gas out of the North Sea.

No that would make it worse. Not pumping oil from the north sea would not change the consumption of oil around the world one bit. What it would do is funnel money from Norway's coffers into those of privately run oil and gas majors.

Norways is investing in green energy. Are the Koch brothers?

Re:Goods

[quenda]

How will goods be brought into the city without the use of vehicles?

Try reading. The trucks will have an easier time making deliveries with fewer cars choking the roads.
Anyone who has driven in central Oslo will know this is an experience not to be missed. Nobody will ever miss it.

Since the billion-dollar Bjørvika tunnel opened in 2010, there is not much reason to even drive through Oslo.

Re: Corporate welfare..

[Maelwryth]

Actually it enhances the rights of private citizens. Just because you have a car doesn't mean I should have to give up my right to walk on the road. We all have legs. Only some have cars.

Manufacturing transit support by annoying riders

[LostMyAccount]

I think some of the logic of the anti-car urban factions in urban areas with poor public transit is:

1: Make driving a car difficult through reduced parking, more expensive parking, and street closures which worsen auto traffic

2: This forces drivers onto public transit.

3: The low quality public transit as the only alternative creates political pressure for better transit

It's a risky gambit, because public transit can't be made superior overnight. Really good subways and trains are the result of either legacy dumb luck from 100 years ago or once-in-a-millennium rebuilding due to war or other catastrophe. Games played with road networks to restrict cars can wind up hurting buses, which are the cheapest and fastest way to improve public transit since they require almost no fixed infrastructure.

If the larger region surrounding the car-restricted urban area is car dependent (which is nearly all of the US), the odds of a huge financial windfall to improve transit are pretty low -- people won't want to pay for massive transit upgrades.

Rather than trying to create these car-free utopias, maybe there's some better solution -- like very large parking areas on the city outskirts, combined with really fast and high quality "last mile" trams or express buses that take people to their final destination. Park and ride lots are kind of like this, but they're almost always located way out in the suburbs and aren't useful outside of explicit commuting.