Have you ever been presented with an alternative to your everyday that is so compelling you are unable to sleep? A vision of a world radically changed, that calls on our shared history, that utilize technological humanely and promises a better future … for generations?
Periodically I am swept away by utopian passions. Ideas and imaginings that make my pulse quicken. It could be a result of personality. That particular blend of dystopian pessimism and utopian artistry. In the last ten years I have become increasingly interested in the design of environments. Environments meaning, homes, buildings, campuses, streets, cities and ultimately regions.
In recent weeks I have been pouring over Carfree, a companion website to the book Carfree Cities by J. H. Crawford. I stumbled across the website searching for automobile lifestyle alternatives.
My wife and I were recently reduced to one car. For five months we have been functioning with one car. Emily has carpooled to work, and we have rearranged schedules to share the car when necessary. And while we are now financially able to purchase a second car, neither of us feel a strong need (as opposed to desire). Partly this is due to rising gas prices (around $3.40 in our area; up nearly $2.20 since I became old enough to drive). We also have a desire to stop contributing to global warming and other environmental ills.
In addition to our one car experiment, I have been doing my best to participate in a small urban development project near our home. We live in the heart of downtown Fullerton, California in a low- to mid-rise apartment complex. The complex itself could have been better constructed and is ridiculously priced for its age and offerings, but that is the Southern California housing market. The downtown area itself is great if a little small. Their are several small restaurants and parks that we try to take advantage of and enjoy. The city has a disproportionate number of antique shops, boutiques, and salons. But it also has a heavy rail station, a number of pleasant parks, two colleges, and plenty promise.
The promise may be the best part. Fullerton is attempting to pursue a new vision of the city in Southern California. A vision that avoids low-density suburbs, strip malls, and business parks. And all these life experiences along with the books, magazines, and ideas have primed me for Crawford’s website. Crawford lays out a design problem: How to build a city that accommodates around one million citizens without any cars. Yes, without any cars.
Fellow Americans, stick with me. I live in Southern California. I can completely relate to the skepticism your feel at the notion of life without cars. Please, acknowledge though, that some where in your gut you wish you did not spend at least 40-minutes a day commuting, that your budget did not include fuel expenses and that pollution & global warming wasn’t on the news ever night. That you did not need auto insurance or worry about your kids playing in the street. Seriously, imagine if “drunk drivingâ€? disappeared from our vocabulary.
The end of automobile culture would also require the undoing of the massive shifts from the last century. But more on that later. For now, go visit Carfree and see if it catches your interest.
