| Cities across Europe are increasingly challenging the dominance of automobiles by restricting their access to urban centres. But as a recent campaign decrying automotive bans by the centre-right EPP group shows, the issue risks descending into a left-vs-right culture war clash. After decades in which our cities were transformed to accommodate private mobility in response to rising car sales, the tide seems to be turning. Local leaders from Paris to Dublin, Milan to Brussels, are increasingly restricting cars, reimagining urban spaces as places to gather, not just transit through. The move to curtail car access is partly being done on environmental grounds, particularly to combat the harmful air pollution from petrol and diesel cars, but also to reallocate space for alternative means of getting from A to B. City planners strive to move people in the most efficient manner possible within a constrained area. Unsurprisingly, cars are not the best means to do so: They rarely carry more than two persons at a time. Instead, footpaths are being widened, cycle lanes installed, and public transport offerings beefed up – all at the expense of room previously reserved for driving. The benefits of going car-free in crowded city centres may seem obvious – less pollution, reduced noise, and less danger of being struck and maimed by a rapidly moving box of steel (an issue the shift to electric vehicles won’t solve, by the way). But as the movement to restrict cars from city streets gains momentum and political credibility, those opposed to the transformation are increasingly vocal. | 