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The Need for Highly Livable Streetcar Neighborhoods
01.12.2009 Mithun, Bert's Blog
What will it take to get Americans out of their cars? What is the role of private business in public transit? How do you provide a variety of transit options? How can we design neighborhoods that are more walkable and encourage public transit? (01:26:50)
« All newsI recently had the opportunity to join two of the nation’s leading thinkers in 21st century transportation and urban planning in a panel discussion at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC: Shelley Poticha, President and CEO of Reconnecting America, and Robin Chase, Co-founder of Zipcar and Founder and CEO of GoLoco.
Reconnecting America is the nation’s leading non-profit focused on transit and transit oriented development (TOD) . Its mission is “to reinvent the planning and delivery system for building regions and communities around transit and walking rather than solely around the automobile.” Mithun is currently doing research with Reconnecting America to identify the climate protection benefits of livable, walkable, high density neighborhood centers linked by transit.
GoLoco is a web-based tool that uses a social networking approach to ride sharing – maximizing utilization of existing planned vehicle trips by individuals. Think of it as kind of a personal taxi service that has one of your good buddies as the driver. When they’re heading somewhere in town – to the store, or class or another location – they let you know via email. If you can use a ride that direction, you’re linked to work out the details.
Reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) is critical to slow global warming, and reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is essential for reaching our GHG reduction goals. An interesting part of the discussion at the National Building Museum involved the way in which most American cities in the first half of the 20th century developed with a streetcar neighborhood. I grew up in one in Denver, albeit post streetcar. It had all the components that we need to reinvent the American city for the 21st century. Just a few steps from my house, a neighborhood center extended for one block on both sides of a major bus line – the former streetcar stop. It had a drug store, a grocery store, a realtor, a plumbing shop, my dentist, an insurance agent, “Daisy’s Dry Goods” (where the really good candy was) and Wright’s Creamery (really good ice cream!). The grandmother of one of my good friends lived above the drug store in a wonderful old apartment building. We could get most everything we needed on a daily basis right along that street, and the transit line carried us downtown for movies or other special events.
What America needs in the 21st century is for city planning to rediscover its roots with highly livable streetcar neighborhoods that are compact, complete and connected – where we all can go for a walk to get that ice cream cone instead of having to drive.
If you’d like to learn more about the American city in this century, along with transportation and how policies impact our future, head to the websites of the Urban Land Institute, Smart Growth America or the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. All are great resources.