Oslo, Norway Doesn't Want Your Stinking Cars, Man

Government officials in the capital city of Norway said Monday they would like to ban vehicles from a region in its city center by 2019 to reduce greenhouse gases, according to The Guardian.The plan has had mixed reaction according to the newspaper, Verdans Gang. There are only about 1,000 residents in the zone where vehicles may be banned, but roughly 90,000 workers commute there everyday, according to the newspaper. Residents have said that a ban on vehicles could add up to 45 minutes to their daily commute.In its statement, the Oslo city government said the city would be free from fossil fuels by 2030.Other European cities have experimented with banning cars from city centers. Last month, vehicles were banned in some neighborhoods of Paris for seven hours and Brussels has held similar car-free Sundays since 2002.The city government of Oslo said it expects to grow by 200,000 residents in the next 20 years. Banning cars could help that city mitigate its growth in busier, denser districts and reduce greenhouse emissions.“In 2030, there will still be people driving cars but they must be zero-emissions,” Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, a member of the Green Party, said at a news conference, according to AFP.Officials for the government in Oslo didn’t specify details for how it would ban cars or control parking outside of the car-free zone. The government said it would add more bicycle lanes and subsidize electric bicycle purchases. The city said it wanted to cut traffic city wide by 20 percent by 2019 and 30 percent by 2030.(Photo courtesy Bygdoy%20alle%201%22%20by%20 Bj%C3%B8rn%20Erik%20Pedersen%20-%20%C2%A9%202005,%202006,%202007%20by%20 Bj%C3%B8rn%20Erik%20Pedersen.%20Licensed%20under%20 %22" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CC%20BY-SA%203.0%20via%20 Wikimedia%20Commons.">Wikimedia Commons)