Uploaded on 2015-06-17 by suurmec

This photo is taken in the centre of the small city of Tartu, Estonia. It depicts the Ülikooli street, where the university is located. The street is right in the heart of the city, and besides students and academic personel, there are a lot of people who pass through it daily, as well as tourists who wish to see the university. Visible on the photo is the historical architecture of the city centre. If the photo were taken from a bit different angle, one could see the magnificent university building, built in classicistic style, behind the building on the right. The photo is taken during a weekend in autumn. One can see some pedestrians walking on the street, as well as a lot of cars parking in between the historical buildings, of which at least 2 are SUV's (!). There are traffic signs put up to keep cars from driving both ways through the narrow streets. Invisible is the amount of people moving through the street as part of their daily commute. It is also invisible how many cars pass through the street daily, how much noise and pollution they create, and what health effects it has on the people involved (in addition to the health effects of noise and pollution, it causes stress to swerve between the cars in the traffic both for the drivers and the pedestrians, and it would also be more beneficial for car drivers to walk more, i.e. get more physical exercise). My goal would be to strive for a less car-friendly and more walk/bike-friendly city centre. Visualising the invisible information on this picture - the amount of cars and the pollution they create -, and putting it into perspective of its effects on health, would help to communicate the value of this goal. Of course in the longer run the city in the first place has to have the supporting infrastructure for becoming walk/bike-friendly, in the form of for example working public transportation systems and safe bicycle paths. Experience from very green cities in Europe has shown that making life more difficult for car drivers also helps to motivate people to use other means of transportation. This policy includes for example raising parking fees and gradually removing parking spaces from the centre. Using the car should become a bigger nuisance than using other, more sustainable and both eco- and human-friendlier forms for transportation. A lot of sides would win from removing the cars from this photo: both people (less noise and pollution; less money goes on fuel and other car-related expenses; a more healthy lifestyle) and nature, but also the overall impression of the city would improve tremendously, as removing the cars would help people to communicate more intimately with the magnificent architecture of the city. The SUV's just don't go together with the majestic main building of the historical university. [1]: http://i.imgur.com/W7KsuEa.jpg