Elimination of the Automobile from Towns

I enjoyed Jim Bacon’s article about building small, car-free villages. It’s a radical notion, but there’s a lot to like about it.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

8 replies on “Elimination of the Automobile from Towns”

  1. What an interesting article. It’s the third time in two days that I’ve read something that has reminded me of cohousing. I think it’s time for me to try to drag my not-at-all-excited-about-it husband to a cohousing open house, just to check it out. I really enjoyed this article. Thanks for posting it, Waldo.

  2. More radicalism: out of curiosity yesterday, I took a CTS bus from my house to downtown and back to escape the din of my kids and work from a (quiet!) coffee shop for several hours.

    I’d not used CTS before, which is almost — but not quite — embarrassing considering I first moved to Charlottesville in 1993. But I’ve telecommuted since 2000, and prior to that I lived within a few hundred yards of my office and walked to work…so it’s not like I’ve ever really had much need to commute (by mass transit or otherwise).

    Additionally, bus service in my neighborhood is minimal: there’s only one bus per hour, and service ends before 6pm! With no bus service outside normal working hours, taking a bus downtown in the evening for dinner or whatever just isn’t possible.

    So, while bus availability (service interval and especially the lack of evening service) is a big negative, actually riding the bus was quite positive: the two-way fare ($1.50) was cheaper than a single hour in the parking garages ($2.00), and the pick-up and drop-off points are very convenient — right on the mall. The trip is about 15 minutes each way, which is roughly comparable to driving, finding parking, and then walking from parking to the Mall. And — I’m sure this might startle some folks — the buses were on time (to within a minute or two) and quite clean!

    So…for my daytime outings downtown I think I’ll be riding the bus whenever possible. If nothing else, it’s considerably cheaper than driving (which makes my capitalist-cheapskate core grin wildly).

    Goatee: check
    Turtleneck: check
    Using mass transit: check
    Hanging out in coffee shops: check
    Fantasies of living without constant need for a car: check

    What’s next? A picture of Владимир Ильич Ульянов on my office wall?

  3. Very interesting article – thanks for linking it. As I read through, what he describes struck me only a slightly scaled-down and changed version of those bastions of socialism I used to live in – Army bases. Most were very compact, planned out/useful community spaces, immediate needs within walking distance, and all within a well-defined perimeter.

  4. Sad that living the way we did for thousands of years until someone figured out how to put a motor in a buggy is considered “radical.” No one’s saying abolish all cars. But if more than half of residents in places like Ballston can get by without cars, why are we still designing Ballston around cars with 5+ lane streets? Not every neighborhood has to be car-focused.

  5. why are we still designing Ballston around cars with 5+ lane streets?

    Probably because Ballston’s a transportation crossroads (and has been for a couple hundred years).

  6. MB, thanks for making that connection!

    I’d never stopped to think about how Utopian all the various Navy bases I served on were.

    [grin]

  7. Additionally, bus service in my neighborhood is minimal: there’s only one bus per hour, and service ends before 6pm!

    Sounds to me like that might change with you taking it. This is a chicken/egg supply/demand problem, and you’ve just taken the first step towards improving service in your neighborhood.

    And I’m with Jeff — MB, that military base connection is hugely interesting.

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