Specifically, how do things like transport of heavier stuff work if you completely remove all roadways?
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Walkable neighborhoods don’t remove the roads. They remove the *parking*.
Not only does removing the parking mean that you’ve saved an enormous amount of otherwise wasted real estate but you’ve strongly disincentivized people using their cars for trips that don’t really justify them.
You create a system where mass transit is far more efficient. The higher density means that it’s much easier to have functional delivery services for those who can’t get around as well.
You also tend to have a lot more mixed-used development. So you’d have a shop on the bottom floor and apartments above it to maximize the utility of both spaces (ground floor apartments tend to be less desirable, above-ground-floor businesses tend to be less desirable).
So the answer to your question is that they transport the heavier stuff the same way we do now: in trucks.
No one is proposing carless cities that don’t have commercial vehicles delivering goods. They’re proposing removing regular traffic. Lots of car-free zones in the world still allow delivery trucks etc just not regular traffic
You don’t remove the roadways, you reallocate the space to prioritize active transportation (walking and rolling) over passive transportation (cars and trucks). Since cars and trucks are now competing for less space you again prioritize cargo vehicles over personal vehicles. The specific balance of active/passive transportation is going to be sensitive to context, of course- an industrial park will need to have roadways with enough capacity for trucks to move their goods, but a residential neighborhood doesn’t need to be bisected by a seven-lane expressway. The ultimate “carless city” is one where a vanishingly small percentage of personal trips happen inside car, even though it’s still technically possible and in some cases necessary. Service and cargo vehicles then won’t have to compete for space with suburban commuters and so the space actually allocated for cars can be quite small.
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