Car dependency and culture in Beirut - Effects of an American transport paradigm

During the past fifty years the privately owned car as a means of mass tran sport has had unparalleled negative effects on cities throughout the world, perhaps nowhere more so than Beirut. Car dependency in Lebanon drains the national economy of wealth and natural resources, encourages the reduction of the quality and quantity of public social space in cities, creates spraw l and far-flung suburbanisation and destroys culture. Although car sales an d usage continue to grow in many parts of the world, many cities and states , including a number in the Mediterranean region, are realising that this c annot continue unabated and are attempting gradually to move away from the private car to mass transit systems. The consensus is growing that public t ransport is not only an economic and environmental necessity but also a mea ns of restoring cultural vitality to urban areas.