What does Car-Free Look Like?
With the help of Martin Specht, who wrote this article for the New York Times, and the mystery reader who sent me this link, we can get a taste of the car-free life by visiting (pictorally, anyways) Vauban, Germany.
Ahhh, Germany! Why must we always look to European countries for inspiration…
Vauban, Germany, is an affluent new suburban community that differs from traditional suburbs in many respects. The most important difference is that cars are forbidden on most of Vauban’s streets, and houses cannot have driveways or garages. Though not quite car-free, Vauban, a district of Freiburg, near the Swiss border, is a highly “car-reduced” suburb.
Biking and walking are the principal means of transport within the community. A tram that runs down the spine of the district connects Vauban to the train station and downtown Freiburg.
Many residents have carts that attach to bicycles for hauling toddlers and groceries.
To make sure that residents can live in Vauban without a car, it is a “mixed use” community: stores, banks and restaurants are sprinkled along the main street of Vauban, and that street is within walking distance of all homes. In many traditional suburbs, houses are in areas that are purely residential, according to zoning laws. Stores and banks are often distant, requiring a car ride.
For energy efficiency, the houses in Vauban, which was completed in 2006, are all row houses. Freestanding homes, like those in traditional suburbs, consume huge amounts of energy because of their exterior walls. Many houses in Vauban were built to passive house standard, meaning they are so well designed to conserve heat — through insulation and other innovations — that they do not need heating systems at all.
Many people move to Vauban not for environmental reasons, but because they feel that a car-free environment is far better for children. Indeed, children are everywhere! With no cars on the streets, many residents call Vauban a children’s paradise, where youngsters wander from a young age in safety. Even some residents who say they miss the convenience of a car at their doorstep have concluded that it is worth the tradeoff.
In Vauban, residents who wish to own a car can do so, but must must generally park it in one of two municipal garages at the edge of town. So for most errands, it’s easier to walk to the store than to walk to the car. Also, spaces must be bought, for about $40,000. The garages are also home to a car-sharing service, which car-less residents rely on for things like weekend ski trips.
Though Vauban is extreme in its policies to discourage driving, other places are beginning to adopt some of the same principles: disallowing new malls that are not accessible to public transportation, for example, and limiting the number of parking spaces in new developments.
Have a great May 2-4 weekend, everyone! And don’t forget, after you’ve “Walk(ed) for a Creative City” on Monday, be sure to listen to ScaleDown Radio for the Richard Florida interview!
Tags: Alternative Transportation, car-free, cycling, pedestrian friendly
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What an inspiration!
We always look to Europe because they have density, cars are expensive to use. The exact opposite of what N. America offers…unfortunately. It is why I chose to live in my downtown.
Sadly, I have to do exactly what suburbanite in Europe have to do. Use transit or their cars to get daily amenities. While surburanites have their’s within a 3 minute drive (but why drive if it is so close?) Let’s keep making the changes here at Scaledown and everywhere else!
Suburbia is a classic example of externalization, that is, taking the cost of a particular service (generally speaking) and transferring it to an external party. Corporations are notorious for this little sleight of hand, but suburbia has been playing that game for 40 years now. What made me think of that nasty trick was the roads — did you notice? — pristine! Whether riding, walking or using other wheeled transit, there doesn’t appear to be a bump, crack or split anywhere in those pictures.
The reality is, transfer of infrastructure costs to the tax base is an inefficient way to prop up infrastructure spending. If, for example, that winter tomato bore the real cost of the infrastructure required to bring it from Mexico (or beyond!) to your dinner plate, nobody would buy tomatos out of season!
Externalization must be stopped, or at least contained, before we can allow the open access to (truly) free markets to drive business decisions and public consumption in such a way that a development, such as the one above, would be plausible.
(Oh that’s a whole different topic … I’ll stop here
)
I am extremely jealous…
This kind of reminds me of Granville Island in B.C. - artisans, grocers, etc. all in one place, no cars, only bikes and pedestrians (from what I can remember). And I concur with Andrew…
It looks so beautiful, clean and easy!! Why can’t we have something like this in our own city?!! I know, I know… like beating a dead horse at this point…
Nope - it’s attainalble, though it would just need a lot of work to get there. All we can do at this point is to keep the idea alive, and make the business case, to our local politicians. Keep it in their face, and keep it in mind when it comes to our next election.
This reminds me of that lady from Riverside Drive who was at Council last week asking them to convert it to a bike boulevard. She played this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM60DqAM6bQ and asked them, yet again, to get traffic off the Drive. BTW, about 3 million $$$ of Vista project money was dumped into the budget…but since the Vista project isn’t going anywhere because of the lawsuit, it seems clear that the Mayor/Council intend to “raid” it for some other darling project that it wants money for……the canal for instance.