Car-friendly

Describing a place, policy, infrastructure, or design that prioritizes and accommodates the use of automobiles. This typically involves ample parking, wide roads, easy access to highways, and a general environment where driving is convenient and prioritized over other modes of transportation like walking, cycling, or public transit. car-friendly environments often have lower densities of population, promoting urban sprawl and can include infrastructure that creates safety risks or difficulty of use for non-motorized transit. They are often created through decisions about zoning laws, road design, and traffic management and are designed for quick and easy movement of passenger vehicles.

Car-friendly meaning with examples

• The suburban development was designed to be car-friendly, featuring wide streets, generous parking lots at every business, and easy access to the nearby highway. Residents could easily drive between homes, shops, and entertainment venues, making it convenient to run errands or socialize. However, it meant relying on a car for virtually all trips, contributing to traffic congestion and limited opportunities for exercise through walking or cycling and also limited public transit options.
• City planners adopted a car-friendly policy, widening roads and building multiple parking garages downtown to alleviate congestion and attract shoppers. This led to increased traffic, reduced pedestrian space, and negatively impacted small businesses that lacked convenient parking. Despite attempts to reduce traffic, the policy ultimately resulted in increased carbon emissions and made it harder to attract new retail or residential properties.
• The new shopping mall prioritized a car-friendly layout, with acres of surface parking and a circular road system designed for efficient traffic flow. While it offered easy access for drivers, it made it challenging for pedestrians and cyclists to reach the mall, and it detracted from an overall walkable area. As a result, many potential shoppers were deterred, leading to lost revenue to nearby businesses, and less opportunity for healthier travel.
• The government's infrastructure projects aimed to create a car-friendly transportation network, focusing on building highways and increasing road capacity. While this improved travel times for motorists, the investment diverted resources from developing public transportation or bicycle lanes, thus leaving a larger portion of the population without access to affordable and sustainable ways to get around. It led to a reduction in public transit ridership overall.