And it’s just a known example, there are a lot of cities way smaller than Paris where it’s easy to live car free.
And the US is covered with cities that can be lived in car-free; but the tradeoffs are too great for most people. (By definition any rural town that’s about a square mile or two is walkable.) Cars are so cheap and so good that most everyone grabs one when they can.
[1] https://www.ceicdata.com/en/france/motor-vehicle-ownership-p...
The goal shouldn't be "car free cities" it should be (at least in the USA) "first get it so households feel one car is fine".
Grande Paris is definitely not the zone I put my 2/3 statement on.
It’s just that driving a car in Paris is hard and awful.
I lived in a city of <1M inhabitants for the first 5 years of my son’s life without a car (in fact I had one but never used it for day to day life). Public transports and bikes can get you far faster than any car in rush hours. I’ve never had more than 30-40min between my door and my office, including depositing my son. The few times I did it with the car it took me the same time thanks to traffic and it was far more stressful.
And it was in France, where public transports are ok-tier but far from top notch in Europe.
Also the 7 hour day is pretty false. That’s the minimum time of a full-time job but most people are working 39-40 hours. It’s just that the extra hours are paid or are compensated with off time.
In practice you’ll only work 7h/day if you are at the minimum wage.
> Still I’d be curious how upper middle class folks with kids survive without cars.
All my middle class friends the kids walk. Everywhere. There are public restrooms everywhere. There are buses, parks, libraries, supermarkets, stores everywhere.
"Oh yes!"
"Cool, Get out then."