- World Population Review Newsletter
- Posts
- The Cities That Made Cars Obsolete
The Cities That Made Cars Obsolete
Infrastructure that reshaped cities and daily life.
Philip Saparov
March 04, 2026
In partnership with
Greetings, restless explorer of smarter living!
In most cities, traffic grows and car ownership follows. But in a few places, transit changed behavior. People skipped the second car. Some skipped cars entirely.
Why does this matter? Transportation is often your second-largest expense. Cities that make cars optional lower costs, improve daily freedom, and reshape how people live.
Here are seven places where transit didn’t just move people — it changed the math of everyday life.
Let’s take the train.
Can this idea actually make money?
The fastest way to find out is simple — launch a newsletter and website in minutes, then turn what you know into something people can buy.
With beehiiv’s Digital Product Suite, your expertise becomes real products: a short guide, a playbook, a set of templates, or limited access to your time. No friction, and no code required. Just create, price it, and share it with your audience.
And unlike other platforms that quietly take 5–10% of every sale, beehiiv takes 0%. What you earn is yours to keep.
For a limited time, get 30% off your first 3 months on beehiiv with code PRODUCT30.
Tokyo never “discouraged” cars with dramatic bans — it simply made rail better.
The Greater Tokyo Area moves roughly 40 million people daily, with rail as the backbone. Car ownership exists, but it’s secondary. In central wards, car ownership per household is far below suburban American norms.
Three structural advantages stand out:
Privately operated rail companies integrated with real estate development
Extremely high-frequency service (trains every 2–3 minutes)
Zoning built around stations, not highways
The result? Over 60% of commuters in central Tokyo use rail.
One striking fact: To register a car in Tokyo, you must prove you have an off-street parking space — a quiet policy that fundamentally limits excess car ownership.
Zurich didn’t eliminate cars — it made them unnecessary.
Public transit, trams, regional rail, and buses are synchronized with Swiss-level precision. Miss one train, another arrives shortly. The system is clean, reliable, and integrated with cycling and pedestrian networks.
Key drivers:
Nationwide rail connectivity (Swiss Federal Railways)
Limited parking supply in the city center
Transit passes that make car ownership redundant
Car ownership in Zurich is significantly lower than in comparable Western cities.
A powerful statistic: In Switzerland, over 70% of commuters use public transit in major cities — one of the highest shares in Europe.
Singapore offers a different model — behavioral economics.
Car ownership isn’t banned. It’s priced.
Through its Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system, owning a car can cost more than the vehicle itself. Meanwhile, the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system is clean, modern, and expanding.
The formula:
Limited car quotas
Congestion pricing
High-quality, fully air-conditioned rail
Car ownership per 1,000 residents remains far below U.S. levels.
A revealing detail: The right to own a car in Singapore can exceed $70,000 before you even purchase the vehicle — a deliberate incentive structure that shifts behavior toward transit.
One LED Device. Five FDA-Cleared Treatments.
Why buy separate gadgets for every concern? Celluma treats wrinkles, acne, pain, hair loss, and body contouring in one medical-grade LED system. Designed to conform closely to your face or body for optimized light delivery. Professional technology built to grow with you. No needles, no downtime, no pills, no worries.
Results vary. Consistent use required.
Copenhagen didn’t rely on trains alone. It combined transit with cycling — and made cars optional.
More than 60% of residents commute by bicycle daily. Metro lines and commuter rail fill longer-distance gaps. Parking has steadily been reduced over decades, not overnight.
Three ingredients:
Protected bike infrastructure
Seamless rail integration
Urban design prioritizing short distances
Car ownership exists — but car dependency does not.
One surprising reality: Copenhagen has removed hundreds of parking spaces annually for decades, gradually reallocating space to bikes and pedestrians.
Berlin proves transit transformation doesn’t require ultra-wealth.
Its U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams, and buses create redundancy. If one line fails, another works. Density supports viability, and ticket pricing remains relatively affordable compared to car ownership.
Key dynamics:
Extensive legacy rail network
Unified ticketing across modes
Mixed-use neighborhoods
Nearly half of Berlin households do not own a car.
A fascinating detail: After German reunification, Berlin preserved and expanded rail lines instead of prioritizing highways — shaping behavior for decades.
Amsterdam’s canal-era street grid naturally limits automobiles. Rather than force cars into tight spaces, the city leaned into transit and cycling.
Today:
Cycling dominates short trips
Trams and trains handle medium distances
Regional rail connects across the Netherlands
Car ownership rates are significantly lower than U.S. cities of similar size.
In fact, over 35% of households in Amsterdam do not own a car — by design, not by restriction.
Paris has aggressively reshaped its streets in the past decade.
Bike lanes replaced car lanes. Parking was reduced. The metro system — already dense — expanded further under the Grand Paris Express project.
The philosophy: The “15-minute city,” where most daily needs are reachable without a car.
Public transit usage remains among the highest in Europe.
One compelling shift: Paris removed tens of thousands of on-street parking spaces in recent years — reallocating that space to bikes, buses, and pedestrians.
Infrastructure doesn’t just move people — it changes choices.
When transit is faster and more reliable than driving, behavior shifts. Households save. Streets quiet. Cities reclaim space once lost to parking.
If you’re deciding where to retire, invest, or relocate, look at transportation first. It shapes cost of living, safety, property values, and daily freedom more than most headline numbers.
Mobility is destiny.
Stay informed. Stay curious. And always ask: does this city move people — or just cars?
Warm regards,
Shane Fulmer
Founder, WorldPopulationReview.com
P.S. Want to sponsor this newsletter? Reach 138,000+ global-minded readers — click here!