written by Vishesh Ranglani (Conference Lead / Navigate Mobility)

We don’t actually design cities for people.

We design them for cars, and then try to squeeze people back in around the edges. We talk about “walkability,” “mixed use,” and “transit-oriented development” but when it comes time to approve a plan, it’s the parking ratios, traffic studies, and vehicle flow models that win every time.

The truth is, most cities are addicted to car dependency not because we love cars, but because every regulation, zoning code, and political incentive still treats the automobile as the baseline citizen. Cars are indeed useful. They’re freedom machines in a lot of ways for eg. they get parents to daycare on time, they connect rural areas, they make life possible for people who don’t have good transit options. The problem definitely isn’t that we have cars; it’s that we built everything around the assumption that everyone will always need one.

Until we flip that, until people become the unit we optimize for, we’ll keep pretending we’re building livable cities when really we’re just making slightly nicer highways.

Speaking to some really hard working people in this field I found that real human centered design means taking something away. Parking spaces. Lanes and unfortunately even convenience for drivers. That’s the trade nobody wants to say out loud, but it’s the only way forward.

Where do you draw the line between car convenience and city livability?