Trends in Public Interest Towards Car-Free Urbanism: A Decade of Google Trends Analysis (2013–2022)

Car-free urbanism is being adopted by a growing number of cities to enhance walkability, reduce pollution and combat climate change, and improve public health. One of the major challenges facing these initiatives is public sentiment and distrust. However, little research has been done to track public interest in this movement over time. Using Google Trends, this research report analyzed 20 search queries related to car-free urbanism and tracked their relative search volume between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2022. The authors found a moderate rise in public interest in the United States for search terms that were highly specific to car-free urbanism. Among low-specificity search terms, no clear pattern was established.