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Answer: The first (Carfree living)...
- as I have said elsewhere, I now hold an expired drivers license, and do not want to ever have to get it renewed - that's a challenge, I know - but there must be places in America, even in Asheville where I can live happily that way. Of course, I will be happy to take buses, and hire an occasional taxi. In fact, they are bound to be a vital part of my living arrangement.
By sticking to carfree plan, I reckon I will wind up buying property in a place with a brighter future, since I do not want to be directly exposed to the risk of higher oil prices.
Of course, once I find the "ideal" place, and move in there, I may find that I am better off owning a car and using it occasionally, and I will be flexible enough to consider a "car-light" option then.
But I am conducting a "purist" search right now - and seeking full no personal car living.
I have already found a few places where I think I can live happily that way. But none in Asheville so far.
A reason I mention "car-light" is that I want this thread to be useful to other people who might read it in the future. Others may take less of a "purist" approach than I do. But let's see, I have found that there are some others also aiming to live Carfree in the NC/SC area.
My carfree plan is the opposite of what some American technologists have been tinkering with. I think that their inventive tinkering is not addressing the real problem : how American distribute themselves on the landscape. Here's an example of a failed "solution" from a thread in the Urban planning section:
I remember there being a HUGE amount of buzz around the Segway prior to it's being announced. Lots of people hyperbolically speculating about how transformative the Segway would be - I think Steve Jobs said it would be would be as big a deal as the PC - other people commented on how it would change the way cities were built.
The problem with that speculation is it was all mired in a suburban view of the future - a vision that was already waning at the introduction of the Segway. That vision of growth by sprawl is no longer the predominant force - and denser urban cities are the most desired and coveted areas of be in. So the Segway was designed for a future that thankfully will not come to pass, and is instead hopelessly mired in a dead-end vision of cities that was already being rejected and will be completely killed in the 21st century.
I have lived outside the US for most of the last three decades, and I see this thing (the Segway) as a classic stupid America blunder.
America needs to change its wasteful Suburban living environment (the most collossal mal-investment in history) rather than looking for new ways of accommodating a frightful mistake.
understand. then an urban or transportation heavy environment would be a good place to look.
WNC is hardly that. But good luck on your search.
I am not necessarily a huge fan of what you call a "transportation heavy environment" - though I may wind up in Denver or in Charlotte near the CTC.
In fact, I might prefer a traditional smaller town, if I could find one with a nice walkable dowtown and excellent rail and/or bus connections to other places. They do not really seem to exist anymore. So I may be stuck with the urban environment.
understand. then an urban or transportation heavy environment would be a good place to look.
WNC is hardly that. But good luck on your search.
+1...
Has this become a mini-blog on "let's change the environ/techno shape of the US", or the orig wonderment of where can one live without a ~$3-4G annual car 'cost', if one feels they don't need/want a car? If one doesn't need/want a car, (other than large US metro areas or the really economic challenged), there may be some whom get by without one, but A'ville isn't necessarily high on most lists of 'car-free living', imo.
Boone is described as "somewhat walkable" overall, with a Walkscore of 67.
I like Boone a lot, but just wanted to say that I think Walkscore sucks. They give Carrboro a 37 which is just ridiculous. You can walk to almost anything you need in Carrboro (restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores, coffee shops, library, music venues, art galleries, live theater, live comedy, clothing shops, gyms, doctors, chiropractors, parks, schools, free buses, farmer's market, record store, bike shops, etc, etc.) I know many car-free people in Carrboro and many who move there just for the walkability. So going on that I wouldn't base anything on that walkscore site. I find Carrboro much more walkable than Boone even though I love Boone and go there many times a year (family home there) and am very familiar with it. It's a wonderful town and definitely worth checking out on its own merits, but I think it would be much harder to get around w/o a car than Chapel Hill or especially Carrboro.
Oh, wanted to add that I was just talking to a woman the other day who lives in Charlotte and was raving about how walkable it is where she lives. I believe she said she lived in Phillips Place. Not sure I'm remembering that right, but it definitely started with a P.
(Abuse ignored here)
That poster has no intenshion of leaving Hong Kong.
He lives in utopia where carfree living thrives.
" just my 2 cents, a quote from a famous writer Md"
Ody
How would you know my intention?
Do you think everyone should move around without any thought to The Big Picture?
Are you perhaps threatened by the idea that I may be right that American car dependency represents a dangerous addiction - and is clearly unsustainable? If I am wrong about that, then kindly answer the following question:
How can 5% of the world's population go on using 20-25% of the world's oil?
Ask your children and the younger generation what they think about this, and whether they might want to consider a different way of living, when the living arrangement that they are inheriting from their parents will clearly not work on a long term basis.
If you saw a Big Crisis coming (as I do) would you want to put yourself in the way of it?
I would be mad not to think about living in a walkable community, when I am moving back to a car-dependent country like the US.
Location: Right there, next time out, look I could be right next ;or in front of you
136 posts, read 286,246 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geologic
How would you know my intention?
Do you think everyone should move around without any thought to The Big Picture?
No one here can answer your "BIG Picture question, My maturnal grand mother say;( Fugi prov) one has to try on shoes, to see and feel if right.
Many peoples dream and never try shoes.
I would be mad not to think about living in a walkable community, when I am moving back to a car-dependent country like the US.
You have answered your own questions ;; You must be completley Mad, insain even; You have asked these same questions in 3 different states and in 5 different ares of these states.
All these areas and states are walkable, to an extent you would get board within 6 mo walking the same old; same old path day in and week out,
answer me this Why did the bear cross the mountian?
and as u said " a car dependent country like the U.S" and you would be dependent in the US to some extent, on a car. and then you will know the true answer to the bear question
as far as oil reserves as you state, i admit havent the answer, and if you do perhaps staying in Hong Kong or even go to Shenzing hour by train and 30 min by bus ;they are both subtropical latatudes the same as the Carolinas.
You have answered your own questions ;; You must be completley Mad, insain even; You have asked these same questions in 3 different states and in 5 different ares of these states.
. . .
as far as oil reserves as you state, i admit havent the answer...
What better way to find an acceptable place, then to ask this vital question of the people who live there?
I have learned plenty from the answers so far. Including that most people in the US remain in deep denial about the risks that their oil dependency confers upon them. So when the crisis hits, there will be a shock, and maybe a big panic to live somewhere that is less car-dependent.
Those who get on the raft first (even before the wave hits) may be in the best position. If mad, then maybe "crazy like a fox." Only time will tell.
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