Car Free

I had a couple of links sitting in my to-do list related to car free living. One is a blog entry about the Chris Balish book from Seattle's Bus Chick.

The other is a graphic from the Post about the percentage of people by county who commute by car alone. It's interesting, because most planners would say that we need to find a way to reduce the number of single car commuters and yet the steps taken toward that goal are clearly inadequate (when the national average is 77%). Since this is a bike blog, I won't discuss how to get people onto buses and trains. But I think there are steps that can be taken to get more people to bike. Facilities is one part, but biking in DC is already easy to do. Showers are a big step - and that's being addressed by the new Green Building code changes. Bike parking is important too - also addressed in green building codes and with the bike stations. So, while driving becomes more difficult and biking becomes easier, I think it's inevitable we'll see more and more bike commuters. That may create a critical mass - to steal a term (hey, they stole it from physics first) - to push for real change. A carbon tax or the Bicycle Commuter Act - which will be helped by Blumenauer's new position, hopefully enough to counteract the co-sponsorship by Mark Foley (you did hear about him, didn't you) - would really push bike commuting to new levels. It's the next big step, in my opinion.

Addendum: Montgomery County is also going to be encouraging (though unlike DC, not mandating) Green Buildings.

Comments

[Fritz]

Another term to steal is "Tipping Point" from the book by Malcolm Gladwell. He describes how movements and products gain enough *ahem* "critical mass" to suddenly become popular. Trends appear from nowhere and suddenly are everywhere, as if they were contained in a cup that suddenly tipped and everything all of sudden comes pouring out.

I think we're on the verge of that tipping point now with bicycle commuting. We're not there, but I think we can get there with some concerted effort.

[ohmypolarbear]

I'd be interested to see data (if they collected any) on how far these single drivers travel, and how many of them are headed for downtown.

Depending on how it turned out, it would be a very convincing way to support things like bike advocacy (reasonable distance) and expanding Metrorail's range and capacity (headed downtown). Not to mention urban planning initiatives encouraging people to live closer to their workplace.