Should Passenger Cars be Banned in Cities?

Title: Should Passenger Cars be Banned in Cities?

Car ownership has significantly increased among people living in major cities. Such increment has caused critical problems such as pollution and constant traffic jams in cities. Pollution and traffic congestions associated with increased cars in cities pose serious threats to the people and the planet. Therefore, cities with elaborate public transport systems should ban passenger cars and encourage people to embrace public transport, walking, or riding bikes to mitigate risks associated with pollution and traffic congestions.

Metropolitan cities should ban cars to minimize air and noise pollution. Air pollution usually exposes human beings to the risk of global warming, which can cause lethal disasters such as drought, heatwaves, skin diseases, and cancer. Studies show that car-related air pollution in urban centers is the leading cause of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, increasing premature deaths (Miller & Newby, 2020). Therefore, these problems can be avoided by banning cars in cities and encouraging people to use other safer means such as public transport, walking, or bikes to commute.

Moreover, cities should ban cars to minimize traffic congestions. Traffic congestion exposes pedestrians and city dwellers to critical health problems such as noise pollution, which increases the risk of health problems such as sleep disturbance and hearing impairment (Nieuwenhuijsen & Khreis, 2016). Also, many cars in cities usually increase the prevalence of road accidents that cause injuries, death, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a critical threat to human beings considering that some megacities such as Beijing have more than 21 million people (Farooq et al. 2017). Banning cars would prevent exposing many people living in cities to noise pollution and other health risks associated with traffic congestions in towns.

In conclusion, cities should ban cars and encourage people to use public transport or other sustainable transport mean to prevent or minimize risks of pollution and traffic congestion. Banning cars would slow global warming and reduce health risks such as respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disorders, hearing problems, road accident-related deaths, and injuries. Banning cars in city centers is a good thing because it helps avoid traffic jams and air pollution problems.

References

Farooq, A., Xie, M., Williams, E. J., Gahlot, V. K., Yan, D., & Yi, Z. (2018). Downsizing

strategy for cars, Beijing for people not for cars: planning for people. Periodica Polytechnica Transportation Engineering, 46(1), 50-57.

Miller, M. R., & Newby, D. E. (2020). Air pollution and cardiovascular disease: car

sick. Cardiovascular Research, 116(2), 279-294.

Nieuwenhuijsen, M. J., & Khreis, H. (2016). Car free cities: Pathway to healthy urban

living. Environment International, 94, 251-262.