car-first nation: car-free locations preferred by25%

Posted on by tiger40490 rendered_on [ Thu, 6 Mar 2025 ] 23:16 UTC

k_X_car_dependency

  • Choice 1: small-town America, car-first design. Mobility with bike + occasional drivin
  • Choice 2: big city with some public transport. More walk and bike, Higher density, Bigger downtowns than Choice 1. For (almost) every inaccessible but important place, I can often find a more accessible alternative location in a big downtown.

Which do I prefer? My preference is biased but at my age I may not be as flexible as I wish in adapting to changes.

Compared to Singapore, 90% of U.S. residents (outside NYC and including immigrants) are drivers. It seems that only the poor or the temporary visitors don’t drive. So this country has developed a great many “systems/facilities” to facilitate driving, but I feel it can still be easier to live without car.

Analogy — IDE can make your life “easy” and there are many support tools growing around an IDE, but a text editor is still far more reliable — simplicity.

Analogy — coffee is popular and there are many commercial facilities to support coffee drinkers, but the cost is much higher than water yet less healthy.

There’s a published “walk score” assigned to each location. Many people prefer walkable communities.

But how much premium am I willing to pay for car-freedom?

— https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/realestate/jersey-city-grows-up.html says

Many still do prefer the suburbs … closer-in suburbs with walkable downtowns and train lines have also seen population gains in recent years, said Mr. Evans. The counties that are bleeding residents are car-dependent exurban ones with large, detached houses, convenient to suburban office parks but not much else. “In the 1980s and 90s, jobs were suburbanizing as well, so people could live close to work,” he said. “But now many jobs have moved back to the cities.”