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Old 04-23-2013, 09:42 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
702 posts, read 951,303 times
Reputation: 1498

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This is a blog post that popped up on Streetsblog today:

Musings . . . by Karen Lynn Allen: The Disappearing Urban Car (Why Successful Cities Will Be Largely Car-free by the End of 2015)

I find her observations and analysis of the urban trends we see today to be fascinating, and surprisingly realistic. Lets note a few things about our region for discussion:

-Street parking is being curtailed, and wider sidewalks, protected bike lanes, and parklets are being introduced
-Millenials drive quite a bit less than the baby-boomers dying off, and many choose car-free lifestyles
-Of all the metro areas in the U.S., the bay probably has the best weather for bicycling
-BART's Oakland airport connector will be complete next year
-BART's Warm Springs/South Fremont extension is on track to be completed by 2015
-BART's Berryessa extension is on track to be completed by 2017
-The Livermore extension is being studied, and we now have people on the BART board who support extension to Hercules
-With any luck, BART will connect to Caltrain in San Jose sometime around 2023. The agencies will likely merge at this point, and Caltrain service will increase to BART frequency.
-Silicon Valley will have a fantastic Bus Rapid Transit system start service along El Camino in 2018
-Marin county will have an alternative to private automobiles come 2016, when SMART links Santa Rosa with the Larkspur ferry.
-Even our farthest-flung suburbs will be getting regional rail service in the near future, eBART is coming to Brentwood

We know it's happening, but do you think the transition is taking place as fast as Karen claims it is? What obstacles will we face as a region during this transition? Do you agree with her assessment that the conflict between car-driving baby-boomers and millenial cyclists is or will be 'intense'?
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Old 04-23-2013, 10:06 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,127 posts, read 107,402,364 times
Reputation: 115947
I didn't see a paragraph about "conflict" between baby-boomer car drivers and younger generations of bicyclers. I can't imagine why there would be a "conflict". Also, let's not forget that it was the baby boomers who created Earth Day, and initiated the idea of being car-free, and pro-bike. NYC residents have been car-free forever already, and that goes for all generations. In the office I worked in in Seattle in the 80's/90's, everyone was car-free, only one person even had a driver's license. There have always been households in Berkeley that were car-free, and here in New Mexico I know of car-free households as well. So this trend has been building for quite some time.
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Old 04-23-2013, 10:51 PM
 
Location: Mountain View, CA
1,152 posts, read 3,195,977 times
Reputation: 1067
I don't know, I think the public transit in SF itself is pretty miserable. BART is good at getting you TO SF, but if you need to get around in SF, good luck. Lot's of slow buses or hoofing it are about your only choice. This works OK in "center city" areas like Financial District, North Beach, and Chinatown, but if you need to go somewhere farther flung like the Presidio or Outer Sunset - forget it.

I think the lack of cars in SF has everything to do with the impossibility of parking and nothing to do with the quality of the city's public transit.

For me personally, I am young but am uninterested in a car free lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to live in a walkable area and walk to work, but I'd still want to own a car. I guess some people are content to stay in their neighborhood and not go anywhere, but personally, I like to get out and about. Santa Cruz Mountains, Pacific coast, Tahoe, Napa - all wonderful places easily accessible if you have a car. If you don't you can rent, or use zip car, but that gets old if you do it a lot.

Comes down to lifestyle I guess. If you are someone who likes to stay in the city close to home, car free is fine. If you are someone who likes to travel, "car light" is a better option.
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Old 04-23-2013, 11:11 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,127 posts, read 107,402,364 times
Reputation: 115947
You can still get out and about while car-free. You can take transit to Santa Cruz, you can join the Sierra Club to go hiking in the mountains, you can join a ski club to ski at Tahoe. Yes, you're somewhat limited; that's the compromise you make in order to avoid being a petroleum consumer. One option is to rent a car for a weekend getaway; only $35 for 3 days with Enterprise. There's also car-sharing companies in the Bay Area.
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Old 04-23-2013, 11:25 PM
 
Location: San Francisco, CA
506 posts, read 1,152,795 times
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It's super easy to get out and about while car-free. BART to SFO.
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Old 04-23-2013, 11:55 PM
 
Location: Oakland, CA
702 posts, read 951,303 times
Reputation: 1498
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
I didn't see a paragraph about "conflict" between baby-boomer car drivers and younger generations of bicyclers. I can't imagine why there would be a "conflict". Also, let's not forget that it was the baby boomers who created Earth Day, and initiated the idea of being car-free, and pro-bike. NYC residents have been car-free forever already, and that goes for all generations. In the office I worked in in Seattle in the 80's/90's, everyone was car-free, only one person even had a driver's license. There have always been households in Berkeley that were car-free, and here in New Mexico I know of car-free households as well. So this trend has been building for quite some time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by From the article
29. As cities grow in density, there will be a period of intense conflict between car-driving baby boomers and non-car driving millennials over use of roads and other public space. # # #
She mentions conflict at #29. Believe me, I wish all baby-boomers were peace & love hippies, that would be me if I was born in that era. As someone who rides a bicycle daily in car-centric Mountain View though, I can tell you, there is conflict. I face at least one incident of what I would consider to be abuse at least every other day. When someone makes it a point to roll down their window and yell obscenities at me for no reason other than existing, it's nearly always a male over age 50. I certainly don't discredit the accomplishments of the previous generation, but it's only now that these ideas and lifestyles are becoming mainstream.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
You can still get out and about while car-free. You can take transit to Santa Cruz, you can join the Sierra Club to go hiking in the mountains, you can join a ski club to ski at Tahoe. Yes, you're somewhat limited; that's the compromise you make in order to avoid being a petroleum consumer. One option is to rent a car for a weekend getaway; only $35 for 3 days with Enterprise. There's also car-sharing companies in the Bay Area.
You certainly can! I encourage anyone skeptical of the coming car-free way of life to watch the intro videos on ZipCar's website. Just swipe your card, hop in, and go. I haven't tried it yet, but it really seems like this will be the way forward.
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Old 04-24-2013, 10:41 AM
 
Location: Liminal Space
1,023 posts, read 1,548,135 times
Reputation: 1324
I hate to be Negative Nancy, but 2015 is a little over a year and a half from now.... This blog author might be young and not realize how slowly things change in cities. I've been watching all the trends she is talking about slowly align themselves since the late 1990s. I think the direction things are going is clear, but 2050 is a more likely date than 2015.

The extent of the "car free" lifestyle in San Francisco is highly exaggerated. Only 30% of households in SF are car free. That is a quantum leap ahead of average suburban areas, but it is also a quantum leap behind places like Manhattan and Paris where it's around 80% - these are the types of places where car free is truly a "way of life".
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Old 04-24-2013, 10:46 AM
 
159 posts, read 645,077 times
Reputation: 181
I may get attacked for this, but I don't care. In my experience bicyclists generally do not observe the rules of the road. I have no idea if they even realize that they are supposed to follow traffic laws like motorists have to do. Basically they seem to act like cars when it suits them, and then act like pedestrians and expect cars to yield when it suits them.

If we are going to encourage more bicyclists, I think there needs to be more education and enforcement of traffic laws against them.
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Old 04-24-2013, 10:53 AM
 
159 posts, read 645,077 times
Reputation: 181
Also, I don't think we'll ever shake our car culture completely. I think what we will see pretty quickly in urban areas however is people with just 1 car for a household. A lot of the people I personally know in the city typically look like this: late to early 30s. Living with significant other, or married with no kids. Professional jobs, but more often than not one part of the couple works outside the city and drives to work while the other half works in the city and takes public transportation. And yet most of these couples I know have 2 cars, which seems like a waste.

I think quite rapidly couples/ small families that have at least one member working in the city will downsize to just 1 car, but I don't see people just going carless anytime soon.
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Old 04-24-2013, 10:56 AM
 
10,920 posts, read 6,890,026 times
Reputation: 4942
Quote:
Originally Posted by thechoson View Post
I may get attacked for this, but I don't care. In my experience bicyclists generally do not observe the rules of the road. I have no idea if they even realize that they are supposed to follow traffic laws like motorists have to do. Basically they seem to act like cars when it suits them, and then act like pedestrians and expect cars to yield when it suits them.

If we are going to encourage more bicyclists, I think there needs to be more education and enforcement of traffic laws against them.
Yea, but you see what you want to see. Do you notice the ones that do obey laws?

The problem isn't bicyclists, it's idiots. Unfortunately, idiots bike, drive, and even walk, so you'll encounter them everywhere.

I agree with some of your suggestions, though. More education can never hurt, especially relating to urban settings. Goes for all forms of transportation.
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