Living Car Free - Evaluating places to live...

Several times people have asked about towns for car free and we all talk about our favorites and favorite criteria and it ends up being where we choose, wahoonc likes a small town, I like a city, tfahrner likes portland, dahon.steve likes the end of a light rail line. Basically a small sample. Here is a larger sample from deep in the heart of car-culture:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/

In the evaluation section for each city they give the percentage of people who bike or walk to work. Yay! Car culture if not urban planners are beginning to use that as a criteria for how good a city is. There isn't much correlation between the percent of biker and walk commuters and how good cnn thinks the place is but you can compare different places. I looked for the suburbs around DC and the percentages agree with my perceptions. Arlington- 6.8% Alexandria 4%? Thats about right Arlington is better for car free than Alexandria in my opinion, Springfield 2.4% seems a little high, the must be including people who walk to the metro and slugs but still Springfield sucks compared to Alexandria for car - free. McLean 1.8% Yeah no metro so McLean is worse than Springfield. It seems like by trying to measure what people actually do in the area rather than trying to work for some abstraction like the "How walkable is your neighborhood?" websites you can get a better feel for how fun it would be to live car free in one of the listed cities.

They claim 2.8% here, which I find very, very hard to believe. And if that's true I seriously doubt many of those are cycling to work. That's 2800 people not driving to work. I've been biking to work (and everywhere else) for two years and I've only seen three or four other commuters, and I've only seen them a few times.

About what I expected for my newly adopted hometown of Bellingham, WA:

Quality of life City stats Best places avg.
Air quality index*
(% of days AQI ranked as good) 95.3% 75.9%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 3 2
Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 71 25
Median commute time
(in minutes) 13.4 23.0
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer 6.1% 15.7%
% population walk or bike to work 10.2% 3.0%

I would have guessed even higher on the % who walk or bike to work. For ten years I lived in Washington, DC and the air quality in Bellingham has made a huge difference in my life since I'm asthmatic.

Unfortunately Bellingham does have it's downsides... mainly below average salaries (my wife and I both took HUGE pay cuts to move here...even though we have jobs that are comparable to what we had in DC), and above average housing prices. Then there is the weather, but that's not as bad as most people think. The winters can get depressing... mostly because of the short days rather than the rain. The rain here is usually light, and Summers here are absolute perfection. It's a great place to live if you like outdoor recreation. For a city of 75,000 Bellingham also has a lot to offer culturally, but of course it's nothing like DC. Fortunately Seattle and Vancouver, BC are only 1.5 hours away.

Sean

I can't believe my town made number 6.

Edit: It is very bike friendly, though. The layout of the town allows me to get almost anywhere without hitting the main roads and one of those main roads is a designated bike route (there are miles and miles and miles of bike routes in the city and they have been there for over fifteen years). The main areas are also extremely walkable and there are many people who cycle and walk around the campus and main street area.

About what I expected for my newly adopted hometown of Bellingham, WA

Wow, you live in Bellingham? So cool. I visited Bellingham twice in 2006, and heard Frank Black at the music cafe. I forget what it's called. I salvaged some beautiful industrial enamel lamp shades from the old fish factory, and then I heard that it burnt down.

That micro brewery with music events is great too, wonderful stout and I heard some bluegrass music there. I would totally go back there if my friend were still there.

Robert Sarazin Blake (one of my favorite musicians) lives in Bellingham.

Robert Sarazin Blake (one of my favorite musicians) lives in Bellingham.

I've seen him play a couple of times and he's a local favorite of ours. In fact, we were just listening to his CD last night :D

Wow, you live in Bellingham? So cool. I visited Bellingham twice in 2006, and heard Frank Black at the music cafe. I forget what it's called. I salvaged some beautiful industrial enamel lamp shades from the old fish factory, and then I heard that it burnt down.

I'd love to see Frank Black come back here. Big Pixies and Frank fan.
My wife and I didn't move to Bellingham until 2007. Unfortunately a lot of music venues have closed down in the last couple of years due to various problems... including an arbitrary noise ordinance that makes it difficult for music venues to operate. Fortunately that is changing. It's also tough for music venues here to make it through the lean months when the college students are away. Our favorite venue, the Nightlight Lounge, closed right after we moved here.... but we just found out it re-opened under the same management!


That micro brewery with music events is great too, wonderful stout and I heard some bluegrass music there. I would totally go back there if my friend were still there.

I wonder if that's the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern? It's a great place to listen to music and drink beer. Their slogan is, "No crap on tap." They feature a wide variety of music and even have guitars and other stringed instruments that customers can take down from the walls and play. Boundary Bay Brewery also has some good shows in the Summer. We really enjoy living here. Sometimes we miss living in a larger city like DC, but at least we can visit Seattle or Vancouver pretty easily.

Sean

My town beats them all.

Peachtree City, Georgia. I can get the four miles to work without hitting any streets. We have an extensive paved path system that links EVERY single store, business, doctor's office, school (yep, every school), and every single neighborhood. Golf carts and bikes (plus pedestrians and skaters) cross paths all day long. The golf carts are restricted to 19 mph, so they really aren't that fast.

In the fifty years our city has been here (it was planned out from scratch), there has only been one bike rider killed. Not bad, eh? He didn't slow down for a corner, and neither did the golf cart. The bushes on that particular pathway intersection have since been removed for greater visibility.

Anyway, I can get to work (four miles) in about 25 minutes. The longest distance I have to ride on a residential street is the distance it takes to cross it in order to go from one path to another. No major roads, nothing dangerous.

Just good, smooth riding.

Of course, there are a lot of twists and turns, so upright handlebars are a must.

The biggest drawback to our town is that there is no nightlife. Single people are rare. It's a family community.

Good article, good mag. I was going to post this as well but couldn't find the quotes about their ratings include bike-ability.

OK, what I was really getting at was that the percentages seemed to correlate with how easy it is to live car free. That is if you know a subset of the cities and can rank them with respect to car free living, then compare that rank order with the order induced by the percentages of the people who walk or bike to work, is there a high correlation? For the cities I know the percentages seem to correlate exactly with my preference for living in those cities car free. If there are few or no exceptions to this then it would be a good tool for those people who come to this forum with the where to live questions. If there are many exceptions then its not such a good tool.

Anyway, I can get to work (four miles) in about 25 minutes.
.

^^^^^^^This is a misprint right?



upright handlebars .

. .

^^^^Oh now I get it

My town beats them all.

Peachtree City, Georgia. I can get the four miles to work without hitting any streets. We have an extensive paved path system that links EVERY single store, business, doctor's office, school (yep, every school), and every single neighborhood. Golf carts and bikes (plus pedestrians and skaters) cross paths all day long. The golf carts are restricted to 19 mph, so they really aren't that fast.

In the fifty years our city has been here (it was planned out from scratch), there has only been one bike rider killed. Not bad, eh? He didn't slow down for a corner, and neither did the golf cart. The bushes on that particular pathway intersection have since been removed for greater visibility.

Anyway, I can get to work (four miles) in about 25 minutes. The longest distance I have to ride on a residential street is the distance it takes to cross it in order to go from one path to another. No major roads, nothing dangerous.

Just good, smooth riding.

Of course, there are a lot of twists and turns, so upright handlebars are a must.

The biggest drawback to our town is that there is no nightlife. Single people are rare. It's a family community.

Sounds great if you are 57 and want to commit suicide by boredom.

Also, if the golf carts can only hit 19 mph, they are completely useless. They are not faster than bikes, but a lot bulkier, more expensive, environmentally unfriendly, impractical, dangerous to be around and just plain goofy.

How are they useless? I bet, if the trip is only 4 miles, I could probably move more groceries in a golf cart than on a bike. Need to move self, spouse, kid, etc just a couple of miles, but it's raining? Golf cart with a roof would fit the bill. And if it was electric, it shouldn't be that hard on the enviroment. Better than an auto, anyhow.

Sounds like a nice place to live. My only question would be, how long does it take to bike to the countryside? I can't see myself enjoying biking around a city for fun, what with all the stop signs, traffic, and city-sameness.

Great article! Very telling about my home town- more commuters, more taxes, more schools, more crime, houses triple average, etc. Very enjoyable! Just named bike friendly by L.A.B., why; I don't know.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles goes"shake 'n' bake" and San Francisco gets the 'walkable' award. Amusing!

How are they useless? I bet, if the trip is only 4 miles, I could probably move more groceries in a golf cart than on a bike. Need to move self, spouse, kid, etc just a couple of miles, but it's raining?

As for groceries, that's what an longtail (Xtracycle, Kona Ute, Yuba Mundo) or a longjohn (bakfiest, HPM Long Haul, etc.) is for, or if you don't want to go that route a trailer on a standard bike. For moving the family, if we are talking babies or small children, they too can be transported by the above; older children can ride their own bikes. In the rain, one puts on a raincape. The only thing I can see that would need a golfcart would be if you or someone in your family was too old or too handicapped to ride a bicycle or even a trike.

Even if you want to play golf, there's always www.turftrike.com.

Besides, Peachtree City is in the Atlanta Metroplex, which we all know is a Hellmouth; it is certainly hot enough to be.

dont be so negative, if he thinks its a great car free city then let him be excited about it. I think golf carts could be a handy thing to have for somethings, not a substitute for bikes but still worth keeping around. They are all electric which is potentially renewable. Its good that they are regulated to 19mph max, if only cars had such regulators! Personally, it sounds to me a lot like a retirement community that we have in Sacramento called Del Web. Its a planned senior community with similliar themes. Great for some but not for everyone. I prefer a dense city like the Bay Area with slow moving traffic and lots and lots of transport options, taxi, bike, bus, muni, trolly, Bart, the list goes on and on! Why be forced to just use 1 mode of transport and try to make it fit all your needs, be that a car, bike, or bus?

One man's heaven is another man's hell.

Where's the info for Canada and Australia?

My city had 3.2 % who walk/bike to work, slightly above the average of the 100 best cities (3.0 %). ( Which was nice, because we're WAY below average on everything else.) I find the city to be good for biking, so-so for walking.

One little glitch in the figures. I noticed that my neighboring city (East Lansing, MI) has 24.3 % walking/biking. The high figure makes me suspect that they're counting the 45,000 university students in the figures, which would skew the results in some ways

One man's heaven is another man's hell.

So where did your city rate?

(Just curious because I'm in Michigan too. I see we had 6 cities in the top 100.)

Several times people have asked about towns for car free and we all talk about our favorites and favorite criteria and it ends up being where we choose, wahoonc likes a small town, I like a city, tfahrner likes portland, dahon.steve likes the end of a light rail line. Basically a small sample. Here is a larger sample from deep in the heart of car-culture:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/


I didn't read the article but looked at the #1 city to live which was Plymouth, MN. I took a look at the town from MS Street and trips and didn't see any any local business, shopping centers, trains, lightrails or industrial sector for miles! It looked no different than any ordinary subdivision in this counrty. The article said that jobs were plentiful?? I'm sure it must be a lovely place to live but I would have to work for half my current salary and drive 50 miles from town.

I also believe Franklin Township New Jersey was #6 in the best places to live. Folks, why would I want to live in the middle of no-where? Gas is expensive enough and there are no jobs in Franklin Township. Trust me. Take a look at Google maps and you won't see civilization for miles!

It's these types of towns that are going to become very expensive to live in the not too distant future. I'm sure housing is dirt cheap but there's a reason for this. There are no jobs, supermarkets, shopping centers for miles and miles.

I suspect all these car dependant towns will be ghost towns in 50 years when gas is 35 dollars a gallon!

I suspect all these car dependant towns will be ghost towns in 50 years when gas is 35 dollars a gallon!

+1

I didn't read the article but looked at the #1 city to live which was Plymouth, MN. I took a look at the town from MS Street and trips and didn't see any any local business, shopping centers, trains, lightrails or industrial sector for miles! It looked no different than any ordinary subdivision in this counrty. The article said that jobs were plentiful?? I'm sure it must be a lovely place to live but I would have to work for half my current salary and drive 50 miles from town.

I also believe Franklin Township New Jersey was #6 in the best places to live. Folks, why would I want to live in the middle of no-where? Gas is expensive enough and there are no jobs in Franklin Township. Trust me. Take a look at Google maps and you won't see civilization for miles!

It's these types of towns that are going to become very expensive to live in the not too distant future. I'm sure housing is dirt cheap but there's a reason for this. There are no jobs, supermarkets, shopping centers for miles and miles.

I suspect all these car dependant towns will be ghost towns in 50 years when gas is 35 dollars a gallon!

I was suggesting that a person considering car-free living just focus on the percent walking/biking not CNN's overall evaluation. How does your town (and the towns you know) compare in the walking/biking statistic with your evaluation as a place to live car-free? Is it a good first approximation? Roody pointed out a problem with the statistic in a University town.

I was suggesting that a person considering car-free living just focus on the percent walking/biking not CNN's overall evaluation. How does your town (and the towns you know) compare in the walking/biking statistic with your evaluation as a place to live car-free? Is it a good first approximation? Roody pointed out a problem with the statistic in a University town.

I'm actually considering moving within the next year or two, and I was pleased to see that most of the cities I am considering had "bike or walk to work" percentages of at least 10%, which is high compared to my town's 2.8%. So you're right: even though I'm skeptical the numbers are that high, I can at least get an idea of what these other places are like. I've also found that Citydata.com can fairly useful in this way, too.

I like the list of places to "ride out a gas crunch." Marquette, Michigan? It's cold up there. What one would save on energy by not driving very far would go out the chimney in heating costs. (Same is true for Laramie, South Dakota, and Hays which are also on the list.)

In addition to being funny, I think this is a good example of the gas price hysteria the country is experiencing. For some people all that matters on the expense side of things is gas prices, regardless of how insignificant the gas increase might be in their total budget. Weird, irrational, and typical.

Weird, irrational, and typical.

Haha, so true! Some folks are obsessed with saving on gasoline; some folks are obsessed with saving electricity and/or heating (natural gas). Or some aspect of eco-friendly food such as veganism or local food (or both, even).

Haha, so true! Some folks are obsessed with saving on gasoline; some folks are obsessed with saving electricity and/or heating (natural gas). Or some aspect of eco-friendly food such as veganism or local food (or both, even).

Eco-food is not only about the environment. Many people also don't like to eat vegetables pumped full of biocides and meat from cows that are treated like dirt. Now THAT'S irrational.

... the #1 city to live which was Plymouth, MN. ... didn't see any any local business, shopping centers, trains, lightrails or industrial sector for miles! ...

I work in Plymouth MN and what I've seen bike commuting there from another suburb 20ish miles away confirms Dahon.Steve's comment. Mostly Plymouth's businesses are strip malls and office parks. The CNN video clip bragged up one house being $500k, with the median house price at $295k; that's why I don't live there. Bike commuting means hitting the lovely 45mph arterials only when they're relatively deserted (4 - 6 AM) with a xenon strobe taillight or trying to use the overgrown asphalt sidewalks (I mean MUP's) where every Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, minivan and SUV seems more concerned with mobile phone calls, starbucks and either blocking the MUP road crossings or drag-racing from their driveway through the crossing, running the stop sign and zooming onto the arterial road. :(

Getting up really early has made it possible to become car-lite since I started working here, but now I'm looking at moving to a more bike-friendly neighborhood and then maybe changing jobs, too.