Would you believe me if I told you there are places in the US that can become walkable,
car-free cities within a decade or two?
Let me show you what I mean.
Generally in America there’s this belief that if you want an “urban life” you need
to accept a few conditions.
One of these conditions is that driving is all but mandatory, even in cities.
Due to the way American planning works, being able to walk or bike in an urban environment
as a daily form of transport is something exceedingly rare, rather than a normal benefit
of average city living.
Going as far back as the 1920s and 1930s many cities had streetcar networks, the same way
many cities have bus networks or metro systems today.
Whole communities were built out across the nation around the idea of taking a streetcar
from your suburban house for a 30 minute commute into the nearest major city.
Cities across the country from Los Angeles to Salt Lake and New Oreleans all the way
to Philadelphia had communities like this serving millions.
Driving a car was the domain of the Rockefellers, and it was a national event for Eisenhower
to cross the country prior to the introduction of the Interstate highway system.
They had to teach children in schools during the 1930s that the road was the domain of
the Model T, not of their parents and neighbors going to the shop or their friends playing
soccer.
This generation, I would argue, was the last to live in an America where living without
a car wouldn’t hinder your standard of living if you were outside of an urban core.
Gone was whatever cafe culture America may have developed or third place pub culture,
instead we were told to get in the metal box, go to work or church, and use the roads for
nothing else.
In the decades after, car-centric development, single family zoning, and a sharp drop off
in transit investment made going back to those days where pedestrian traffic was treated
equally to motorists as nearly impossible.
Transit investment was never fully defunded, but services have been made unreliable in
all but the most populated cities, whether because of reduced service or no way to serve
the subsequent sprawling neighborhoods.
Today only 40 major cities have light rail networks, and only 30 of those have over 10
miles of track.
(Stopped here, Record in Morning)
Luckily, some regions didn’t rip everything up.
New England I’d argue is a great testing ground for reigniting TOD.
To give an example of a typical town, let me show you Ansonia..Shelton?..
They’re too close together.
In this town, we can see there’s a fairly sizable main street with shops, sidewalks,
and medium density buildings that can easily be walked to.
The area can be retrofitted or built upon if the town wants to develop, and the streets
are not stroads, plus there’s a distinct core that has been preserved.
I took this photo at an intersection close to the bridge, can’t you imagine there being
a shop on one floor and apartments above?
Despite many cities in the region today feeling fairly suburban, there is less induced demand
than elsewhere and more capability for simple zoning regulations to change the landscape
in profound ways.
Towns like this are a relic, they’re exceedingly rare, but I could see these medium density
towns making a comeback.
They’re places where, with enough investment, the ideal of a modern transit-friendly city
can be made on the back of what came before and still stands.
After leaving for college, public transit options quickly became a rarity.
It wasn’t just something you could use or expect to have access to.
Simply livin in the city didn’t cut it, you need to be lucky enough to pick a good
neighborhood or live directly downtown and be able to pay for that privilege.
(Friday Note: Stopped here, did some adlibbing to stretch out script.
Please finalize Saturday after or before shopping)
If only 40 cities have light rail, think of what that means at a wider scope for American
urban life and how people are able to live without a car in these places.
The fact that every state capital doesn’t have regular mass transit in some capacity
is a testament to this.
Washington DC is maybe one of two major cities I can see having the capability to embody
this new ideal.
The local joke is that the Metro system operates every 5, 15, or 30 minutes depending on how
many lines were on fire that day.
DC, keep in mind, is highly regarded in the US for its transit network simply because
it exists.
Arlington County today has embarked on an “urban village project” closer to the
border with DC as a way to emulate TOD found elsewhere in the world.
It may become a model to transform transit access across the region.
For those just entering the workforce who aspire to live in a place where we can reduce
our car usage or go entirely car-free without going broke, we are limited to quite a few
cities and regions.
I hope I presented a few good examples of where these ideas can be brought to reality.
No matter how many light rail lines you put down in LA, Houston, or Raleigh, they’ll
never be as viable as Chicago, DC, or New England unless you rapidly scale up the density
around transit lines, which is about as likely to happen as me becoming a millionaire.
Thanks for watching this video to the end, I appreciate it.
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