Car-less

Calling all urbanists and sustainable environmentalists. The car-less German suburb story is the most e-mailed at the New York Times.

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1. In German Suburb, Life Goes On Without Cars

Seems like the notion of living in a car-less suburb and living a car-free life has a bit of traction, at least with New York Times reading classes.

The Times follows with a nifty symposia on whether America can go car-free, with:

• Witold Rybczynski, professor of urbanism
• D.J. Waldie, author of "Holy Land"
• Dolores Hayden, professor of architecture
• Christopher B. Leinberger, real estate developer and author
• J.H. Crawford, author of "Carfree Cities"
• Marc Schlossberg, professor of public policy

Money quote from Leinberger:

"American families who are car-dependent spend 25 percent of their household income on their fleet of cars, compared with just 9 percent for transportation for those who live in walkable urban places. That potential 16 percent savings could go into improved housing (building household wealth), educating children or that most un-American of all activities, saving. "

Yowser. Now add in the housing costs at say 30-35 percent or more and what's left over to grow the industries of the future?

Meanwhile, Planetizen links to this story on a really old car-less resort town in Michigan.

I confess to owning a car, but it's pretty easy to go car-less in Toronto, and it's close to America.