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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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How is it that Germany and Japan can maintain good urban planning despite being home to some of the largest car companies? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Ever since ditching car culture and joining the urbanist cause (on the internet at least but that has to change), I've noticed that some countries always top the list when it comes to good urbanism. The first and most oblivious one tends to be The Netherlands but Germany and Japan also come pretty close. But that's strange considering that both countries have huge car industries. Germany is (arguably) the birthplace of the car (Benz Patent-Motorwagen) and is home to Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Japan is home to Toyota, Honda, Nissan and among others. How is it that these countries have been able to keep the auto lobby at bay and continue investing in their infrastructure?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I reckon being bombed to oblivion during World War 2 gave opportunity for re-designing their cities.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Not at all, at least in the case of Japan. Most of their roads are old and narrow, designed before cars were a thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The opposite was the case in Germany, sadly. Partly because of the destruction in WW2, the city planners in the late 50s went a bit nuts with their concept of the „autogerechte Stadt“, the car-centric city. Many cities still suffer from that period of planning madness, but it gets better. At least there, where conservative shits like the CDU aren't ruling.