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Johannesburg tried to get people to give up driving for a month — here's what happened

Leanna Garfield

2015-12-22T16:27:00Z

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For the month of October, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa tried to convince its residents to stop driving.

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The goal of the experiment, called the EcoMobility Challenge, was to imagine a more sustainable city.

To encourage people to ditch cars, local officials added new bike lanes and bus routes before the experiment.

Here's what happened.

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The first EcoMobility Challenge, held in South Korea last year, completely banned cars from the Suwon city center for a month. More than 4,000 residents stopped driving, and the neighborhood briefly became car-free, says Konrad Otto-Zimmerman, creative director at The Urban Idea, which helped found the Challenge.

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This year's experiment was more challenging. Sandton, Johannesburg's central business district, has more than 50 times as many daily commuters as Suwon, Otto-Zimmerman says.

Usual congestion on streets to and from Sandton CBD — Traffic in Johannesburg. The Urban Idea

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The South African city didn't ban cars, but local officials did everything they could to persuade people to opt for public transit. The city installed new bike lanes, wider sidewalks, park-and-rides, light rail cars, bike rental stations, and shut down certain streets.

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Some lanes were closed down to make room for a new, faster bus route.

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The response from bike, bus, and train commuters was positive. "Most commuters had been complaining about congestion during rush hour," Otto-Zimmerman says. "They appreciated that the city was finally moving on the congestion issue."

Others were not willing to give up their cars, even if the buses or trains made their commute faster. The majority continued to drive, but the number of car commuters dropped by 22% during October.

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The city hopes the experience will change how people commute. The greatest challenge is getting commuters to imagine a car-free future, Otto-Zimmerman says.

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"Most people feel anxious about any change, or to lose something they're used to," he says. "This is why a different urban future is so important: people must be part of an exercise in their own local environment — real people in their real city in real time."

ECO WATER SLIDE39 new use of the street — The EcoMobility Festival in Johannesburg. The Urban Idea

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The experiment signals that Johannesburg is inching closer to joining the global car-free movement. Oslo recently became the first major city to ban cars in its city center, and Madrid plans to shut out cars from 500 acres of its center by 2020.

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The experiment gave commuters a taste of what life could be like with fewer cars, less CO2 emissions, and better public transit.

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"If the automobile had never been invented, cities would look differently. There would be less urban sprawl, and far better infrastructure for walking and cycling," Otto-Zimmerman says. "The task is to make decision-makers imagine an eco-mobile future — and to fight a mighty lobby of car-makers."

New cycle lane to Sandton CBD

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