There’s been a lot of blog-based discussion of This article in the New York Times about the car-free suburb of Vauban in Freiburg, which I’m all for: much as I moan about how hopeless Ostfildern is, I live in Germany because I love the country, so it’s good to see some all-too-rare positive reporting about Germany in an English language newspaper, and with a slide show, no less. Mind you, they really should have checked their facts: Vauban isn’t just an ‘Affluent Suburb’ but has different income groups (It just looks affluent because it’s pleasant), and a sign showing a bike and ‘Frei’ written underneath actually means bikes are permitted, but there we go.
I’ve not been able to post about it as quickly as I’d like, but on the other hand I can now include this video of the place and its place in Freiburg as a whole, along with an interview with the mayor, who is part of the Green Party, about how they have worked to make Freiburg a more sustainable/pleasant/livable city.
(Thanks to ‘Cycling is good for you’ for the video)
Ostfildern had the opportunity to do the same, but of course decided to build a new road and make it easy to drive through, but it does at least show that when we do this sort of thing in Germany, we do it well.
Vauban’s English-language website, showing their aims and ideas is here.
7 comments
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May 15, 2009 at 9:56 pm
isocratesus
Cool video. This stuff just makes sense. So that means it’ll be a long time coming to the U.S.
May 16, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Groover
After my rant-post about Brisbane’s idiocy on building more roads to ease traffic congestion (yeah right!) I’m just blown away by this concept and reality of it in Vaugan. Thanks for writing about it (and linking it to the NYT article) as I hadn’t heard of this before.
May 18, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I want to move to Vauban | Cycling Blog
[...] on yesterday’s post: I found an interesting post on the ‘People Powered’ blog of Andy in Germany, relating to an article in the New York Times. The concept of an (almost) car-free town is inspiring [...]
May 18, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I want to move to Vauban | 1800blogger
[...] on yesterday’s post: I found an interesting post on the ‘People Powered’ blog of Andy in Germany, relating to an article in the New York Times. The concept of an (almost) car-free town is inspiring [...]
May 21, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Beatrix Wupperman
Great stuff, well done or well doing Freiburg, get on with it. We are fighting in North East England for simply cycle-paths on busy roads and get laughed at!
Freiburg, Ihr macht ne gute Arbeit, macht weiter so und redet drüber! Wir kämpfen in Nord-Ost England für besser Bedingungen fürs Fahrradfahren, schon die Forderung nach Radwegen an viel befahrenen Straßen löst hier Gelächter aus.
We are producing a film about teenage girls trying to cycle on Dutch bikes up here in England, have a look http://www.bikebeauty.org
May 30, 2009 at 11:16 am
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[...] Freiburg looks ever more attractive… [...]
July 24, 2009 at 5:28 pm
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[...] way those pesky socially engineered places are catching on. Vauban caused a little stir a few months ago on the Blogosphere, but very similar schemes exist or are [...]