Green Network

Hamburg, Germany, is currently working on a plan that would eliminate the need for cars within the next 15-20 years, making the city a greener, healthier and more pleasant place to live. The city?s proposed Gr?nes Netz or ?Green Network? will create pedestrian and cycle paths to connect the city?s existing, substantial green spaces, and provide safe, car-free commuter routes for all residents. The network will enable commuters and tourists alike to navigate the once-car-dependent city entirely by bicycle and on foot.

The goals of the Green Network are multiple. On one end, Hamburg recognizes the need to change in the face of global warming; in the past 60 years they city?s average temperature has increased by 9oC and sea levels have risen by 20cm ? and they?re expected to increase another 30cm by 2100. While a car-free city will undoubtedly do much to lower CO2 emissions, the expanded green spaces that will fall along the new, green paths will also help to alleviate flooding in the event of heavy rainfall or superstorms.

Hamburg?s Green Network is part of a growing trend, particularly within Europe, to create comprehensive cycle networks that encompass not only city centres and ring-roads, but that also connect the city with the suburbs. Copenhagen has undertaken perhaps the most ambitious of these plans with the construction of 26 bicycle ?superhighways,? that extend out from the city centre as part of the city?s goal to become carbon neutral by 2050.