Firstly, I’m aware that my question gives the impression that I hold anti-urbaninst views but that’s not the case. If such a measure were to be implemented I would fully support it. I’m merely curious as to what would happen to emergency services if a total ban on personal, motorized vehicles was enacted. I’m especially curious to how cities or even countries with low car dependency handle EMS.
Emergency vehicles are not personal vehicles.
We want to ban cars, not:
tradespersons’ work trucks and vans
public transit, including taxis and paratransit vans
emergency vehicles
shipping trucks
vintage cars-as-art-objects (though we would ban driving them)
This is what much of nyc traffic has become, esp in Manhattan.
My guess would be that taxis are a large fraction of that traffic, and that would be the first variable to turn down once those categories congest the system by themselves.