I am a life-long non-driver (as in, I don’t even have a driver’s license) for many reasons, but I do benefit from having a car in our household. I think many of the things keeping a lot of people from considering alternatives are a matter of convenience. Sure, I can get to a lot of the same places with a combination of buses and walking, but it requires a lot more planning on my part and often a lot more time. And that is with me being fortunate enough to live near the crossing of a few of our bus lines. I am used to it because I have done it for most of my life, but for many, the inflection point where the infrastructure is good enough to abandon the perceived comfort, safety, and reliability of their personal vehicle is still far away from where we are today. For everyone, that spot is going to be different, but there are certainly ways we can encourage it along—like you are doing with this series. The best little quip I’ve heard on the subject is that everything we do to get cars off the road, empower people to use less obtrusive forms of transportation, and build better-connected communities will make everyone’s experience better—even those who still drive.
Yes, we all want fewer cars on the road, but the problem is in how we build our cities and require developers to create car-centric places. It's baked into the zoning ordinance (with 11 pages of off-street parking requirements) and into the design of our streets. We've made cities built for cars, not people. So driving is not really a choice for most folks.
We need policy changes that may run counter to public sentiment about how subsidized car parking should be. Almost every city that has made a transformation away from car-first policies had major public pushback against protected bike lanes, paid on-street parking, etc. The cities that stuck with the plan to make that transformation (Davis (CA), Paris, Montreal, Mexico City, etc.) have benefitted from cleaner air, more local economic activity, and an improved quality of life for local residents.
I am a life-long non-driver (as in, I don’t even have a driver’s license) for many reasons, but I do benefit from having a car in our household. I think many of the things keeping a lot of people from considering alternatives are a matter of convenience. Sure, I can get to a lot of the same places with a combination of buses and walking, but it requires a lot more planning on my part and often a lot more time. And that is with me being fortunate enough to live near the crossing of a few of our bus lines. I am used to it because I have done it for most of my life, but for many, the inflection point where the infrastructure is good enough to abandon the perceived comfort, safety, and reliability of their personal vehicle is still far away from where we are today. For everyone, that spot is going to be different, but there are certainly ways we can encourage it along—like you are doing with this series. The best little quip I’ve heard on the subject is that everything we do to get cars off the road, empower people to use less obtrusive forms of transportation, and build better-connected communities will make everyone’s experience better—even those who still drive.
Yes, we all want fewer cars on the road, but the problem is in how we build our cities and require developers to create car-centric places. It's baked into the zoning ordinance (with 11 pages of off-street parking requirements) and into the design of our streets. We've made cities built for cars, not people. So driving is not really a choice for most folks.
We need policy changes that may run counter to public sentiment about how subsidized car parking should be. Almost every city that has made a transformation away from car-first policies had major public pushback against protected bike lanes, paid on-street parking, etc. The cities that stuck with the plan to make that transformation (Davis (CA), Paris, Montreal, Mexico City, etc.) have benefitted from cleaner air, more local economic activity, and an improved quality of life for local residents.