Ecotopia 2121: Car-freeCities of the 22nd Century

Abstract

The long-term futures of five cities from around the planet are outlined with the use of one visual image for each city. These cities are : Abu Dhabi(UAE), Denver(USA), Sao Paulo(Brazil), San Diego(USA), and Perth(Australia). These city’s futures are presented in ‘eco-utopian’ terms in which each city studied is proffered to operate within some sort of planned (or naturally-achieved) peaceful, happy and communally-desirable setting that exists in socio-ecological harmony (that is, harmony between society, people, and the environment). The central common feature investigated for all these cities of the future are their ‘car-free’ or ‘car-less’ character. In the spirit of previous idealistic imaginings by writers and artists that have worked on formulating utopias in decades and centuries past, some explanation about how each city can get to this eco-utopian status(by the year 2121AD) is declared, along with an explanation about the social, technical, and economic background that may be present then and there.