Curb cars and sprawl under next US leader, experts urge

The next US president must improve America’s car-dominated cities by levying London-style congestion charges and cracking down on sprawl, British researchers said yesterday.

Barack Obama or John McCain must end eight years of “laissez faire” urban policy under the Bush administration and take on America’s car-loving public, employing vehicle charging in places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, says a joint report by the UK’s Centre for Cities think-tank and the US Brookings Institution.

It urges a new incumbent of the White House to emulate policies that have been credited with improving British cities, including limits on building on greenfield sites until swaths of redundant brownfield land in cities are used up, and targets for higher density development that demand fewer car journeys and makes walking in cities easier.

Guardian