From Freeways to Treeways: Transforming Roads and Car Mobility into Biophilic Ecosystems

It is the key premise of this review article that efforts by cities to shift away from car dependence or car-centric mobility will provide unusual opportunities to renaturalize and rewild cities and urban spaces, and represent a key approach to implementing the emerging vision of Biophilic Cities. A remarkable amount of urban space in cities is devoted to automobiles and to car-based mobility; even a small shift away from cars will open up significant new possibilities for planting trees and forests and other forms of nature. In many cities, this shift will be necessary to reach ambitious urban nature targets (e.g., forest canopy goals). The article describes many ways that cities can begin to rethink their streets and car mobility and provides an initial typology of biophilic streets and spaces that will be useful in this biophilic urban transition. A variety of emerging ideas and early examples from cities around the world are presented; from Paris to New York City to Seoul, there are emerging examples of what is possible, including open streets, green streets, urban trails and nature pathways, and wildlife-friendly streets and roads, among many others. The article speculates about future directions, as well as key obstacles cities will likely face as they implement these new biophilic mobility options and ideas.