Live Car-Free In the Sun Belt Challenge: Accepted // Successes, Failures, and Utter Travesties
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- Опубликовано: 25 июн 2024
- Things I get asked a lot: Why did you move to Las Vegas? Isn't it a typical suburban Sun Belt hellscape, except with enormous, garish casino resorts? And, most importantly: how can you call yourself an "urbanist" and live in a place like THAT???
Today's video answers all those questions, and then goes a lot deeper. CAN you live car-free in a Sun Belt city? Should you? Isn't it just a huge hassle not having a car in a place that was so clearly designed around the assumption that everyone would own one? What are the societal benefits of foregoing car ownership -- and the personal benefits?
Tune in, and all will be answered!
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- Cost of Car Ownership: • The All-In Cost of Car...
- Deep Dive on Induced Demand: • Induced Demand & Roadw...
- Pickup Truck Problems: • Why Absurdly Large Tru...
- Stroad Ecosystem: • The Stroad: A Case Stu...
- Stroad Intersection: • Stroad vs. Stroad: Lan...
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Resources:
- www.rtcsnv.com/maryland-parkway/
- www.southernnevadastrong.org/
- www.rtcsnv.com/projects-initi...
- assets.rtcsnv.com/wp-content/...
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Images
- Lyft By Lyft, Inc. - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- National/Alamo By AutoRentals - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Zipcar By GoToVan from Vancouver, Canada - Zipcar Car Sharing, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Power Plant Image by Ralf Vetterle from Pixabay
- Goat Head Thorns By Steve Hurst @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database - USDA, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (RUclips music library)
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When people call out urbanists for not living in urban places, I immediately think of the “We should improve society somewhat” meme.
I immediately think of "have you tried not being poor or disabled?"
Yup. I’ve been compelled, for reasons not completely voluntary (typically because zoning restrictions have made the alternatives artificially scarce and expensive), to live in car-dependent neighbourhoods at times.
If anything, it is the opposite. If one chooses to live a car-free lifestyle even in a place where it is extremely difficult, that demonstrates true commitment to the values of urbanism and practicing what you preach.
Yet you live in a suburban hellscape, curious! I am very intelligent
@@CityNerd 🤣 Why can I not give MORE thumbs up!
I tried the same thing in Bradenton, Florida. Worked okay for 2 years riding extremely defensively and doing my best to not get angry at water bottles being thrown at me or diesel trucks smoking me out with their exhaust. I got into great shape and had the kind of thunder thighs that AC/DC would sing about.
However, the breaking point finally hit. I was riding down a very wide shoulder on a 55 mph road where I had no alternative route. A Dodge Challenger approached! There was a long line of cars, and this guy decided it wasn't worth waiting 20 extra seconds and pulled into the shoulder to start passing people. I saw him, figured he realized he was stuck behind me, and I kept pedaling on. Next I know this guy accelerated past me within about an inch or two of my handlebars. I nearly wrecked just from the shock of what happened. He managed to skip about 12 cars before merging back into the drive lane and I didn't ride my bike for a year after that.
Riding my bike everywhere made me feel both like a superhero and a second-class citizen. That day it felt like more like a warzone. I've decided I was fighting a losing battle and moved to a city somewhat friendlier to humans.
Anyway, thank you for all your work on these. I can't imagine putting in this much work getting B-roll shots and writing scripts on such a regular cadence. Can't wait for your sub count to reach the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
I’ve had similar experiences in LA and Vegas. It’s pretty disheartening. You really do feel like a second class citizen especially when trying to use public transit. It’s like biking and public transit were afterthoughts are for the most part it’s true. It sucks because people especially in the SoCal region are raised and conditioned to think that cars are the only way and that everything is based around cars. It makes me sad because LA has a lot of potential and beautiful scenery, but the car reigns king there in everyone’s minds
also it’s very interesting that when a cyclist is killed by a driver, a lot of news outlets will word the articles as some sort of accident and avoiding the fact that it was murder. A lot of people on social media absolutely despise cyclists, so these news outlets try and cater to them. People will pass me by mere inches on purpose, and it’s even happened on a mountain road. Yes there are some rude cyclists who will take up the entire lane and have bad behaviour, but that doesn’t mean, “hey let’s go bully and hate all the other cyclists in our 2 ton metal boxes.”
College towns like Davis CA might be the only places in the US where you don't feel second class, which is weird and sad
not a surprise hearing florida drivers nearly killing someone just to get ahead to the next traffic light, people in miami honk at ambulances
A Dodge Challenger totaled my car last year. It can’t be a coincidence that most challenger owners are terrible drivers. (I also lived in Brandonton for a few years, did you go to new college?)
I live car free in Vegas. And completely agree with the freedom it gives you, financially especially.
The worst part is running to catch a second bus because your first bus was late and the next one doesn't come for another hour.
I admire your dedication to it. I get told by coworkers to get a car, all the time. They just don't get it. This video makes me feel proud to be car free.
I live in Birmingham, Alabama which also has poor transit. I have proposed that the agency should give out excuse slips: "I was late today because I took the bus. We need better funding for transit."
what part do you live in i was thinking maybe paradise to live car free in vegas if I move there? any tips would be great thanks
What do you do about groceries? Is there a store within walking distance? Do you take them on the bus? That's really the only scenario I can think of where owning a car is nice.
@@OrphanDoritos I live close to an Albertsons, so I go there after work if I need groceries. Large, bulky items like paper towels and detergent I get either delivered or tag along with friends or relatives that are taking a trip to Walmart/Target
@@eurobeats1 I live in the northwest side of the valley, it takes me about 90 minutes to get to work. My biggest advice is just to plan ahead and use the Transit app to see real time location info about the buses
Car-free is the only option for many poor people in inconvenient places in the USA. I grew up poor in suburban Orlando and never had the option to lease/buy a car until I graduated college with a stable job. By that point, I was so used to car-free living that I just committed to never owning a car (or getting a license even).
It's good to see that CityNerd is willing to put himself in those uncomfortable situations to experience the car-free reality in suburbia. I can't even reason with my friends about why I settled on the car-free life without some BS jokes or mockery, let alone getting them to experience it.
You're doing the right thing, AssBlasster9000! I hope you find friends who give you more of the respect you deserve
I tell them the difference in money I saved from switching to bike from car. No more jokes since then. That being said, they don’t want to switch to it either.
Ayee shoutout to the 407 my hometown. I grew up pretty well off there so we always had cars, but going out on my own soon I probably won't be able to afford one and will probably need to rely on biking, buses, and Zipcar. Any tips for doing it here?
Similar story with me. Couldn't afford a car when I was in college, still couldn't afford one when I moved out of my dad's place. Now I'm living back at my dad's and could probably afford to buy a car, but the extra costs that come with owning a car just aren't worth it imo because I'd probably only use it like once a week. Plus, trying to get my provisional license proved to be a major hassle, so I basically just gave up and bought an e-bike instead. There's so many people out there who could easily switch to using an e-bike to get around instead of using a car.
I used to be car-free in Vegas, in the early 2000's, not by choice tho😂
Car-free in Las Vegas, eh? You're a brave man!
I appreciate the simple living message. I have lived most of my adult life without a car, and I definitely prefer not owning one. The extra cash in my pocket is great, of course, but I also like not having to worry about it, too. I've had lots of problems with my cars when I did own them, from breakdowns to break-ins, and I'm pretty glad not to have that stress in my life anymore. I'm a lot healthier, too.
Las Vegas definitely is playing the urbanism game on hard mode, but you'll absolutely benefit from the cheaper property costs. I can't fault you for that.
Actually, I've had better service on public transport in Vegas than in many other cities that I have visited. Better overall system, IMHO.
How much money do you think you have saved by not owning a car?
@@Fuzzhead392 I've never owned a car, but I own my house free & clear at 43
Registration costs alone are $200 per month, then there is depreciation, fuel and maintenance.
@@liam3284 where do you live that registration is $2400 a year?
I still believe CityNerd moving to Las Vegas was prank and a way to get some "great" material for horrible urban design. He is definitely living Urbanist on hard mode in Vegas and it's awesome to see his successes (and failures) in the Sun Belt. Stay hydrated!
If Vegas is hard mode, then Arlington TX is impossible mode
Hydration is no joke! The sweat evaporates instantaneously. It's diabolical.
@@peskypigeonxArlington has some transit, try McAllen area
@@CityNerd Hydration is also more than just water, especially when you're sweating hard. Bring a sports drink to go with that water, drink one mouthful for every two of water. 🤘
That's what you get living in a desert. 😎
That comment about the awkward interaction at Trader Joe's rings so true to me lol. I'm living in KCMO, an extremely car centric place, and my manager always seems so sorry for me every time I talk about my commute to work. I don't think she understands how free I feel when I cycle, how much money im saving, or (surprisingly) how I'm the most in shape I've ever been in my life. People just can't seem to comprehend how you can be happy without a car.
I sometimes ride to work, it's up a 2400 foot hill and far from everything.
People at work think I am INSANE when I ride in. It's a workout but I feel great when I get to work; energized.
Even in places that are halfway decent to not be car-dependent, it's an uphill struggle to get people who only drive, and live in car-dependent suburbs to even imagine that it is possible, or why anyone would want to do it.
Where I am, in Ottawa, Canada, we just had a Mayoral election that turned on bike infrastructure. The progressive candidate had made a bold pledge to raise $250 million in green bonds in order to compress 25 years of planned bike infrastructure projects into the 4 years of their first term.
Unsurprisingly, the centre-right candidate seized on this as the height of foolishness, and successfully used the criticism of the cycling spending to win a decisive victory, from the admittedly suburban and rural majority (it's a huge dogs breakfast of a city) of the city's population. And when you would talk to suburbanites, almost to a one, and even to older urbanites, this was almost the only thing they could think about as an issue. It was depicted as such an incomprehensible thing due a city to do, especially in the face of economic uncertainty, that it sank a candidate who had led in the polls throughout the election.
Such is the power of the incredulity and hostility of drivers to the mere prospect of making significant investments in cycling infrastructure!
Do you have to ride on sidewalks to get around? Kansas City is not very dense and doesn't have many protected bike lanes. Out in JoCo Johnson doesn't even have a shoulder. When I visit out there I just ride on sidewalks, rules be damned. Not like anyone walks anyway...
@@trevorwetzel7611 I'm in the city proper, not the suburbs, so we have a barely passable network of protected bike lanes that I can use to get to basically anywhere I'd need to. Problem is, if I wanted to go somewhere else, I'd probably be screwed.
@@trevorwetzel7611 also, in KCMO, it's legal to ride "human powered vehicles" like bikes on sidewalks. Thankfully I don't need to use them very much at all. Not so much in JoCo, though
Calling car ownership learned helplessness gives a description to how I've felt about cars for years, but have never put into words. I've been car free for a couple years, but I'm in Vancouver, so it's basically car free with cheat codes
You absolutely need a car if you live in the suburbs of Vancouver. I used to live car free and my lifestyle improved 10x when I got a car.
@@DAMfoxygrampa Can't deny that. I'm right in Vancouver and there's a skytrain station pretty much in my back yard. The rest of my family lives in Langley and their lives would be tough without a car
@@nommchompsky Yeah, I'm in Port Moody and a normal 10 minute drive in a car could take an hour by bus/skytrain. It adds up if you have multiple things to do that day.
Urbanist in Vegas is just a different style of pioneer. Keep it up, man. Hell, I live in suburban sprawl and I'll be damned if I'll be bullied into a car.
Do you at least have an e-bike or normal bike?
Don't let them take you!
@@grahamturner2640 I have a normal bike and you're right, it extends my range a bit but the many stroads still make me think twice about biking vs paying a tiny bit more to shop at the walkable nearby stores.
Yeah, I feel like people try to bully you into buying a car where I live here in the UK. They look at me like dirt because I ride a bike. Idgaf though. I'm going to carry on using bikes to get around and do my groceries. Maybe some of the more open-minded people around here will see me and start doing the same.
I don't need notifications, your Wednesday afternoon releases have become a part of my Circadian rhythm
I don't need notifications since I live in youtube anyway
it helps him to get paid by youtube.
@@falsemcnuggethope same lmao
@@charmerci lmao I have notifications on but I genuinely wait all week for this
Same
Growing up in suburbia and experiencing its consequences is what turned me into an urbanist. I imagine that's not uncommon. Discovering that there's an alternative to suburbs, cars, and isolation was legitimately one of the best experiences of my life. I have never felt more vindicated and comforted. I might be a little uncomfortable with living somewhere more dense, but I intend to do it.
Same
100% relate. After discovering my life could be completely different, and better by getting out of these suburbs, I’m now determined to do so!
You will be. I grew up in the suburbs and thought I would hate living so close to other people. The pros far outweigh the cons. It's something you almost can't see until you've tried it. Humans are infinitely adaptable, but that means we also stupidly cling to bad systems just because someone somewhere thought bungalows and car parks were the way to build paradise.
i've always laughed at the whole "yeah but riding a bus takes longer" argument. yeah in theory it sucks that you're spending that time, but a fixed-length, consistent amount of time where basically no thinking/attention is required is so important as a transitional period between your place of living and your place of working. i spent that whole hour just "waking up" on my commutes to college and i was way better-off for it. besides, it's a great opportunity for people to try to practice meditation, or hell, eating in a way that doesn't endanger every other person around you
Also, if you can sleep, and if you live at the end of a long line/route, then you don't have to worry about missing your stop. That kind of value goes undocumented.
Or read, ideally.
People forget about filling up a car and unless you pay somebody else to do it all for you, changing your oil, fixing it when it breaks, washing it, etc. Its a time consuming trap for most people, some people are 1 broken car away from losing their job or being in debt.
Yeah I'd rather take the 5 minutes driving to work then over an hour transferring and such on the bus. Maybe you should go to bed earlier if it takes you an hour to wake up. What is wrong with you zoomers 🤣🤣
@@DSP-gh5ei Oh my god man I got to get out and put a fuel pump into my fuel tank and press down the handle and lock it for a couple minutes. Unless you buy oil on sale it's generally cheaper and faster to just go to a shop to get your oil changed. Everything breaks eventually with wear. I enjoy washing my car. It consumes almost none of my time. Sounds to me like you just don't know what you're talking about 🤷♂🤷♂
Been living in Vegas car-free for 10+ years now. Love seeing familiar streets in all your videos!
Could you speak to the bus/bike lanes? Do you feel that taking roads dangerous enough to actually have them is better than, say, taking the sidewalk on smaller streets?
Can you live car-free in three Arts District of Vegas?
In my mind this is your best video. Not only is it very relatable to me personally, but it gives hope and motivation to people trying to live car free in areas that are built for cars. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! In some ways, it does feel like the most important video I've made. Hope people get something useful from it.
I agree. This feels like your magnum opus of many concepts you've covered in the past but also a more personal and overt value sharing. You covered a lot of the reasons I live carfree too and I would probably share this as a way to explain, so thank you for making it!!
@@Alyssaleeeeeeee Yes Alyssa has it right!
i feel this way too ! such a great standalone piece
You're a madman. I miss living car-free as I did for a decade of my adult life. But in Vegas? This is some kind of performance art.
16:22 ray, you are probably the only person in existence that has ever biked to a cheesecake factory. honestly, a true role model. you're someone i aspire to be. consider your dad joke quota to be lifted
Nico I don’t know about other cities but DC has a Cheesecake Factory downtown right near the White house. It’s very transit and bike accessible actually.
"consider your dad joke quota to be lifted"
Wooow wow wow, who made you the arbiter of such things? I will refer you back to the concept of externalities at 4:06. There is the well-being of other viewers to consider.
this is gonna be a fun one, i live car-free in phoenix so this hits close to home.
Harsh. I lived in Mesa and I only last two years. It wasn't the heat, it was the way everything is so spread out. You drive forever just to get to Cheesecake factory.
My god. I lived in the west valley for many years. I don't know how you do but fight on
I've just relocated to a rural place from the capitol of Norway. In the capitol it's difficult to own a car and car free living is the norm. After I moved here, people (friends, neighbours, even store clerks where I do my grocery shopping) have made it clear to me that they expect me to get a car. So today I took delivery of my new electric bike ;)
🚲
You're a great addition to the community !
Have fun being the odd bike.
What e-bike did you get ?
Gonna have to do something on e-bikes at some point. Really changes the doability of a lot of trips!
@@CityNerd An interesting thing that I've noticed with ebikes, is that it seems to let people keep biking as they age, as one man in particular emphasized (but I've seen a lot of older middle age with ebikes). Health changes, but ebikes let them stay out there.
@@hergebreaux57 Thank you. I hope I am too!
It was Not Just Bikes' video "The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)" that really drove home how affordable electric bikes are compared to cars.
I got a Momas Jason Urban 2023.
Not sure if it's a national Name-brand or you can get it other places. It has scored high on tests, and it's very affordable. I paid NOK 13990,- (USD 1.400) including shipping and tax.
@@CityNerd absolutely. the range has gotten so good, and you can always carry an extra battery if you need to curb your range-anxiety. Fun fact: My insurance covers e-bike road assistance in case of a flat battery :)
I’m in Chicago. Never owned a car. Love the monetary savings, freedom, and exercise. Being on foot (or on public transit) gives me a fuller experience of the city, too.
Big downside: I go to the grocery store like everyday, because I can only carry so much stuff.
Have you ever used delivery apps like Instacart?
I go to the grocery store every two weeks. I drive out to the lakes, parks, and such every weekend.
I use **Both Delivery and Walking to the local Grocery** which helps in terms of how much stuff you have to carry from the store. For example, for water and canned items I’ll order thru a grocery app. For meats and fresh produce, I prefer to walk to the store for fresher and better selections 💜
I was planning on selling my car and I told some people and they were freaking out trying to convince me that I would become a nuisance to the people around me because I'd be asking them to drive me everywhere. I have not yet asked one person to drive me anywhere and whenever I am driven somewhere, it's because my friends shuffle me into their car lol
My sister is the same way . I bicycled to her place and she looked straight at me and ask if I had lost my job . She thought I was crazy.
It's funny bc I live in a super walkable area with decent transit and my friends are always trying to talk me into taking rides places. They live here too but they always want to spend the same ten to fifteen minutes it would take to walk or take the bus driving around a parking garage lol.
I've got a bike since this post and can get anywhere around my town in around 15-20 minutes! And though most of my friends have cars, I'm still able to get places faster than them 😂Plus, my city is rerouting the state highway and has projects planned to de-incentivize driving and make it more safe to bike so that's pretty neat
I think weather is the most minimal issue that gets overblown. Once you start cycling regularly, it becomes like you said: the 2-3 months that are difficult are just a small part of the year. You just deal
Exactly! It also ignores that cars also have to deal with weather. It's just as annoying, if not more annoying, to wait for your car to warm up than it is to put on a hat and gloves to bike when it's cold.
I kind of prefer cycling in the fall months especially, because the chilly weather keeps me from being a sweaty mess when I get to my desk at work lol. Haven't cycled in the snow, but it's not like it's impossible to do so
Well it depends on if those 2-3 months are just unpleasent temps or if it is a lot of precipitation or perhaps 4-5 months.
Yeah, unless you live in certain parts of California, every places has 2-4 "bad" months. There are strategies for dealing.
It's hard when you're in Canada, and there really are potentially 3-4 months when snow remains on the ground and sub-zero temperatures are the norm.
The cold in Ottawa, where I am, is less of an issue, as long as you dress for it, and preferably if you have somewhere to shower at the other end, because you will likely get sweaty no matter your efforts.
But having to navigate snowy and icy roads, with only a limited amount of cycling infrastructure winter-maintained, means for many people there is a several months break from cycling. So you need to live somewhere where there are other options for commuting in the winter.
When i was at university - 30 years ago - I kept riding my bike throughout the winter. Although after some falls, I eventually, mostly packed it in. There's a growing number of keen winter cyclists here (our ridiculous LRT rollout + the Pandemic have done more than any amount of cycle advocacy to get more people winter biking.) So, every year I keep my bike out, thinking I'll start riding again, but I just haven't. Like you say, the prime determinant of driving is having a car. Which at do. So, more often than I'd care to admit, I'll drive, even though I live in a highly-walkable and bikeable neighbourhood.
I used to work somewhere that was about 3 miles from home. About ¾ of the year I could bike there in about 25 minutes, which was a little longer than driving, and definitely shorter than transit. And I loved the control it gave me over when I had to leave, and how long it would take me to get there. I knew I could always make the trip in ± 5 mins. Whereas it took 3 buses, and time could vary wildly depending on when the buses came. And while in the car it was generally a bit shorter, sometimes there was bad traffic, especially getting across a bridge, and you really couldn't predict how long it might take, and there weren't really any better, alternative routes.
So I would dread the winter, when I just couldn't bring myself to ride, and I hated taking the bus. Eventually, my wife got a parking space in her building, and even though driving cost us THOUSANDS more in gas and parking, we did it - mainly for the winter, but once there was the sunk cost of parking, and no expectation of getting the spot back next winter if you have it up. More often than not my wife would drive, although I still preferred to bike most of the time, though I would wuss or when it rained.
It would be easier, in a way, to be in somewhere like Oulu, in Finland, where it's cold enough that they seem to just pack down the snow on the bike paths and they're quite rideable. Whereas in Ottawa they clear, salt and sand roads (and some bike routes) which usually results in a slushy mess and the salt eats your bike.
All to say, it would feel strangely liberating to be somewhere, where there wasn't the physical barrier of snow and ice, and the discomfort of cold. And I guess in places like Vegas, that don't have snow, so are theoretically bikeable year-round, there are other environmental limits, like heat, that may mean bike Commuters would also take a break for a period of time.
Glad to see a video exploring walkability in a less "urbanist" city. However, I'd love to see more transit advocates understand that for many non-drivers, living car-free isn't a choice. Cars are expensive; parking is expensive, and many health conditions make it impossible to get a license, or even ride a bike. When people who can't drive face situations like you mentioned at 16:57 (unpredictable work hours, long commutes, etc); we don't have the "safety net" of driving to fall back on. We lose jobs. We lose access to resources. We become socially isolated. I really hope more people make the CHOICE to live car-free, because it's going to make life so much better for those of us who don't have that choice. Keep up the great work.
I live car-free in the greater El Paso region and your opening comments of being an urbanist in an anti-urbanist region really resonated with me.
"If you're waiting for things to be perfect before you try to reduce your own car dependency, there's a good chance it's just never going to happen."
This was such a great inspirational takeaway.
I'm Canadian (from Montreal), I thought Canada give too much space to cars, then I saw Vegas last week... oh boy. I was shocked that cars had so much space. I knew that the priority was to the cars before I land in Vegas but not at that point, it's insane...
yep, from Canada too and our worst is not even close to some southern cities. It really is insane over there.
I'm going to keep making videos about road design here, because it's absolutely ludicrous
@@BaronBytes All southern cities are crazy. Except New Orleans. I lived in New Orleans for a while and it's shockingly walkable/bikeable for a city in the south. Bike lanes everywhere, all major roads have a median in the middle so you don't have to cross 5 lanes of traffic at once, the streetcar runs 24/7, the ferry runs 18 hours a day and hooks directly to the streetcar line, etc.
@@PalmelaHanderson Awesome, it's on my short list of cities to visit next. I'm sure I'll love it.
@@PalmelaHanderson New Orleans is a completely different world. Its the one city in the south that us nothing like other southern cities. Its been super progressive and gay friendly for decades, which didnt exist in the south back then. On top of that its one of the most unique and walkable cities in the US. I loathe most US cities and think theyre overrated, but New Orleans is genuinely one of the best cities in the US
I was so curious about why you moved to Vegas, thanks for explaining! That is very thoughtful of you to try and gain some empathy by living in a car centric place for a while. I grew up in suburbia and still live in a pretty car centric place but this has made me committed to living car free despite the challenges, just like you. Thank you for sharing these urbanist ideas! :]
Yeah, what I left unsaid is that I've lived in close-in city neighborhoods my whole life. Just trying to break out of my mental bubble!
@@CityNerd Waiting for you to come settle in St. Louis next year. Bet your rent here would be even cheaper than out there.
As Chicagoan-turned-San Diegan as a result of the pandemic, I really appreciate this content. Someone just a few days ago commented to me that it was great how in San Diego you could get anywhere in about 20 minutes, to which I had to reply “…in a car.”
Hey yeah, you assuming the car gets all the green lights?
san diego has some pretty good transit tho.
I just moved from Cape Coral, fl to Chicago and I don’t drive!! I absolutely love it and it’s life changer both physically and affordability
You're a good man. Thank you for providing proof that it can done despite the challenges cities like Vegas bring, as well as the ways the Vegas isn't so bad.
"Fair and balanced"
Great essay! I still think it’s wild to live car-free in Vegas, but you’re making it work. I have been car-free in a classic streetcar suburb of Pittsburgh for the past year, and I’ve been delighted by how much healthier I’ve felt (and how much my savings account has gone up).
Dormont?
@@stroadwarrior Aspinwall! No streetcar here anymore, but it’s well-served by transit today.
Yeah, when I'm done with Vegas I might have to head east and make things easier on myself.
PGH represent!
I live in the East End car free, feels great to bike to work every day
I kinda regret that I didn't attempt to do more cycling and use more transit when I lived in Pittsburgh. I lived in Dormont and I would take the T whenever I went to a game and occasionally would walk to the bar for Steelers games, but that was about the most. If I ever move back, I will definitely attempt to live somewhere with good cycling access and try to live car lite.
I spent a lot of time living in central Houston with one car between my wife and I, which she usually had with her at work (I work from home). I walked around pedestrian-hostile environments a *lot* during this time, both for daily necessities and for exercise, and it wasn't always pleasant, but I was able to make it work. I think you're right that more people could pull it off than currently do. That said, I also spent some years in the Houston exurbs with no car while she was at work, and I really was trapped and a little bit miserable. Nothing in walking distance, no sidewalks on the stroads, so I'd literally have to walk in the ditch, no bike infrastructure that went anywhere useful. So that's where you get to the line between "bad urbanism" and "completely car-dependent sprawl". People who live in the latter type of environment, which sadly is a lot of people in the US, they probably do need a car, and that's a shame.
The only time that walking in the ditch should be normal is on true rural roads. I grew up in a tiny town and now live in suburban CT and I'm amazed how many roads are missing sidewalks that have the same density as my hometown which had a sidewalk along both sides of every road. (And walking paths to the colleges on the outskirts of town so the students can easily reach Mainstreet)
I know my hometown is still very car dependent but atleast within the village walking is perfectly acceptable and easy, like the school has a charity fundraiser called the santa fun run where kids walk around the block in the dead of winter. That would be impossible for the area I'm in now.
I grew up just north of Houston, in Spring, TX. I rode by bicycle around my neighborhood and down the creek, but never to stores or shops because it meant traveling with fast cars and was just too dangerous. I later lived in the Montrose area of Houston which is very dense and works well for walking and bicycling, and of course bicycling to Herman Park is really nice. I moved to San Francisco and later Oakland, CA. Bicycling here is awesome. I actually bicycle commute to work between Oakland and my job in Berkeley, CA. It's also so much fun to take visitors on a bicycle trip from my home in Oakland, hop on the BART train to San Francisco, and cross the Golden Gate bridge. For visitors that are fit, I continue up the hillside so they can take the classic photo of the Golden Gate bridge with San Francisco in the background - ruclips.net/video/tNRG1lBpc7s/видео.html
I got to go to Houston for work for 3 months. After the first month, I was already ready to go home. It was terrible without a car.
Ive lived on the northwest side outside of the beltway for a little over 2 years. Biking and walking are pretty much unfeasible - no sidewalks or lanes, too much traffic and too high of speed limits for me to ever even consider it. At least once a month there's an accident on the road outside of my apartment complex - one of which I was in (which was my fault...)
Thankfully I'm moving to a cheaper place about a third of the distance to downtown and still the same commute time to work, on less busy roads. There's sidewalks and it's near a bayou so I can bike into the city if I'm ambitious enough. Still fairly car dependent but I'm hoping I can get used to biking and walking places again.
I love how personal it gets in these kinds of videos. It's inspiration to go out and live the life you really want instead of just complacently fumbling through it. There's something undeniably genuine and pure about this channel's origin story.
Also, this video might finally push me to sell my car parked on the street that gets such seldom use these days.
Loved this! I’ve lived without a car for decades. It’s doable and the benefits are there in saving money, less stress and in helping the environment. Thank you for teaching/preaching an alternate to this car-mad society and the determination to have it ALL.
I've lived without a car for nearly fifty years now. I saw the farm I grew up on die when a freeway opened just upwind. No way would I own a car after seeing that. In all those years, nearly every other person I've met who lived without a car was a woman. Always wondered about that. Good luck in all your future endeavors.
"Saving money by cycling" is kind of true (cars cost a lot) but it's also the biggest lie ever told.
If you cycle regularly you want (need!) good gear, which is expensive. If you cycle a lot your stuff will wear out much sooner (for example a good bicycle tire is only ten bucks less than a good enough car tire. You really only save money by only needing two bicycle tires instead of four car tires).
If you cycle a lot your bike (new) costs more than your car (used). (Actually, yesterday I bought a new bike - which was a steal - but it was still 50% more expensive than my car!). A transit pass over the expected lifetime of the aforementioned bike would definitely be a lot cheaper. But: the bike's more fun and faster (or at least: not slower)
"Ride a bike & save money" is technically true but riding a bike regularly ain't free either.
But riding a bike is so much more fun than driving.
Portlander here -- I took a weekend trip to Vegas a few years ago and decided to see how it would go not renting a car. We stayed in east downtown and did a lot of walking, but any time we wanted to hop on a bus we'd hit it at just the wrong time and would end up spending an hour with a connection to get anywhere. With the limited time we had (and the cold I was coming down with, limiting my energy), we ended up doing a lot of ridesharing. I think if I went back for another weekend I'd probably end up renting a car, if only to get out to the desert, but for a longer trip I'd like to try going car-free again. Thanks for this nuanced take!
Yeah, the bus frequencies here are not good! 15 min on a "frequent service" line
busses here in vegas especially for the tourist areas are heavy on the stops.
I urge you to not rent a car, the expense alone is not convenient. using busses, or rideshare are the way to go. most hotels charge to park per day, plus the rental car, plus the gas, and navigation doesnt really tell you how to easily sneak around. what most people i deal with do is they rent a car for the day to go to the nature areas, it cuts down on the expense. and you can use that car for off strip eateries that night or something make it really worth your time if you plan ahead.
Just sold my car this Sunday and have been car free for 3 days. Loving it so far! Although, I’ve been car light for a year now, so the transition isn’t hard, and I live in Palo Alto which is much easier than Vegas!
I lived car-free in Palo Alto for 2 years. After San Francisco, it's probably one of the easiest places in the Bay Area to get by without a car. Good luck!
Great to hear!
being car free is better in PA, never have to worry about getting another parking ticket.
I like what you said about self-imposed constraints. I find a lot of life is like this. People don't understand why I don't mind parking at a charging station and walking through town. People don't understand why I like to bike to the grocery store. People don't understand why I like to camp. (What? No electricity? No roof over your head as you walk to the bathroom?). These things bring experiences and interactions that can't be had any other way.
Like commenter Andrew in Oregon, this video comes at an important time for me. My movie-of-the-week-inspired path has been Brooklyn, where I was born, then Los Angeles, then Hawaii, then Los Angeles, then Cheltenham (UK), then Brooklyn, then Los Angeles, then, god help me, Fresno, where I’ve spent the last dozen years (albeit with a couple years spent in the Bay Area sprinkled in while still commuting back to Fresno every weekend).
Los Angeles is notoriously car-dependent, but I was lucky enough to live in some manageably walkable, bikeable areas (though I still owned and relied on cars). Even Hawaii has The Bus, which got me pretty much anywhere I needed to go on Oahu (it’s way busier these days). And in Cheltenham and Brooklyn, I didn’t own a car and rarely even rented one. But then I moved to Fresno, which was prompted by my wife, who was from here, and which was made more emotionally (at least) permanent by having two kids.
There are other contributing factors, no doubt, but since I’ve been here, woefully dependent on two cars and in the thick of some of the worst pollution in America, my health and fitness has seen a massive decline. To say the least, it has taken a severe, probably DNA-altering emotional toll on me. It took me so long (again, other factors, plus prolonged stubborn ignorance and a dash of codependence) to figure out what I was going through as I tried to reverse-engineer the fundamental changes to my life.
It wasn’t until I started to dive deep into these ideas about urbanism and the subsets of human mobility (including accessibility), transit, design, etc, that I started to realize that the most significant change was, ultimately, an increasing predisposition toward convenient stillness. Combine this with how hard it is to identify the real costs, not just in terms of money, but what it can do to us physically and mentally, and - well let’s just say it made it a bit easier to start to forgive myself for once.
So, honestly, it’s a surprise that the move was from Portland to Henderson. Henderson is a lot more like Fresno (we actually live about 20 miles south in a quasi-rural suburb), but even from the few things I saw in the video it seems like that area is far ahead in some key ways. We’ve spent a lot of this year traveling. We’ve been fortunate to go to Europe a couple times (including Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, and much more in NL), return to Hawaii, visit Portland, Salt Lake City, multiple visits to Los Angeles, and San Francisco, etc, and (along with videos from CityNerd, NJB, etc) it’s given my wife a bit more perspective on what I’ve been feeling all these years.
Recently we were on a short trip to Los Angeles for a concert with some friends. I made us Uber to the Hollywood Bowl rather than try to park. After the show no cars were available, so I recommended we simply walk. As we made our way down Highland, we happened to pass a bus stop right as a bus was approaching. I said “Let’s get on!” Everyone reluctantly agreed after I shared that going out of the high-demand area might make it easier to get back, and we were surprised to see that the line was running for free at the time. We took it a few stops and got off. Everyone was hungry and, wouldn’t you know it, a ramen place seemed to be open right across the street. I was so excited. My wife said, “Why do you have so much energy?” And then it occurred to me: it’s because I’m in a city! So I said, “The city energizes me! Just walking and moving and taking part in transit led to us landing on a place we would’ve never found otherwise if we just schlepped back to our hotel.” And the food ended up being excellent. We did end up using Uber to get back, but it cost 1/5 as much as it cost for us to go less than half the distance to the venue in the first place, which almost made up for the cost of the meal.
Even at 40 it’s striking to me how much of a greater surface area for movement and discovery there is in the best cities, particularly in contrast to where I live now. Though the population might be among the highest in California, Fresno and the surrounding suburbs and smaller cities in Central California just suck the life out of me. And while it’s cheaper to live here, which means we can better afford the travel described above, while we’re under three hours from San Francisco, Los Angeles, the beautiful central coast, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, etc, it’s not lost on me that what really counts is how we live our lives day to day. And this of course plays in to raising children, etc.
Somewhat ironically, we are actively planning to move to Portland in the not-too-distant future. That’s part of why I find this channel so intriguing. But it’s a big deal and we would be trading what feels like the constant need to impose layers of environmental abstraction on the way we prefer to live (for example, deciding to go to a gym versus life itself as a gym) for something far closer to what we’re increasingly able to define as our core values, which are those that ultimately inspire us to avoid stillness. Plus, as Andrew points out, a city can be more about the people we surround ourselves with. We don’t know many people there, and I’m sure they’re not amenable to even more Californians making the leap. It’ll be uphill to acclimate.
Still, we think it’s worth a shot.
I really appreciate your insight, Ray. I don’t begrudge you the move to that area at all. It already seems to have made your commentary and insight more well-rounded and it definitely helps me feel a bit better about the value my own choices even if they’re currently swayed toward moving to the very place you just left. (And if you have any insight on best places in Portland to live car-free for a family with two young children, I’m all ears!)
Anyway, I apologize for the long comment that nobody will read.
Thankfully, I’m writing it more for me than anyone else.
继续走
True CityNerds read long comments. I'm gearing up for a different kind of move. I'm single and living in South Korea, but need to move back to the East Coast US to be close to aging family members. I'm acutely aware it could be a very bad move for my health. You're right that in the US we're engineered into imposed sitting, whether we like it or not. It's soul-draining. I hope you can make your move and raise your kids somewhere healthier!
@@jessamineprice5803 I’m rooting for you, Jessamine. Awareness helps a lot. It kind of snuck up on me. Hopefully you’re in a place where you can thrive.
I read your comment, and I can relate to them. I especially related to the energy you described from just being in a city, as I get it too! It's shocking how the sitting habit can sneak up on a person living in a car-dependent place. Good luck on your move to Portland! I'm looking at eventually relocating to a place that will allow for car free or car-lite living also.
Folding e-bike and a bus pass can get far in most cities, if you don’t mind dangerous roads
As a Las Vegan/Henderite since '08...you are BRAVE to ride a bicycle here. It's not a matter of "if" but "when" you will get squished by:
- a senior stroking out
- a drunk liquored up with casino's free booze
- a graveyard worker exhausted while driving home
- a tourist distracted by new roads and all the shiny lights
- a Californian
I lived two years car-free in LA. Yes, it is not for everyone but it's totally possible! And I agree that you get more creative once you live car free and open for all other transportation modes. There are millions of Americans in cities who could drop their cars tomorrow if they want to. They just need to realize all the benefits of living car-free. I hope more and more people will move to this direction. Thanks for this video!
i grew up in LA and my family didn't have a car. We walked or bused or trained everywhere.
for me - the most meaningful factor is "does it instill habits for the kind of life you want to live." I relied on a bike for most of my 20s (even through suburban Chicago winters), and I was healthier and happier. Great points.
I appreciate your reflections. I lived without a car for most of my adult life, and I only learned how to drive and bought my first car a couple of years ago, at least in part because I wanted the increased sense of agency it would give me in a world that had suddenly changed so unnervingly.
A video like this leaves me a little nostalgic for how it used to be, and I wonder if I might ever go back. Leaving aside the social and environmental reasons in favor of living car-free (which I do also consider, sometimes with a sense of guilt), but thinking only of the personal reasons for and against, I wonder.
I know I was in better shape when I walked as much as I used to. And though I'm not the most outdoorsy person, there was something about being present to the elements, rain or shine, hot or cold, in all four seasons, without the option to decide to stay in after all, simply because spending time in the elements was necessary to get around, that meant I was less buffered from the world around me, and I think that was right. The physical exercise, the exposure to nature, and the deliberate and meditative pace at which I moved through the world were probably good for my emotional and spiritual health.
But that being less buffered from the world could also suck. I feel so much more exposed to the social environment when on foot than I do driving a car, and that exposure is draining. From an up with people kind of perspective, contact with the human community ought to be a positive, but from an introverted perspective, random contact with strangers isn't. Plus, unfortunately, the folks one encounters on the streets are sometimes a rough element, or their lives depressing to have to consider up close. That'll sound super privileged, and it is undeniably a privilege to avoid that sort of contact when driving, but I can't say I'm not glad for it.
Also, I have lately enjoyed the sense of equality with others in my own social circles, since I am able to go wherever they might go, and not be shut out from certain gatherings because of a lack of transportation, or else have to bum a ride.
So I have been spoiled since I got a car. But I still live a life such that I could really live car-light without giving up too much, and perhaps it would be worth it, in exchange for the chance to live a more meditative and situated life rich in walking, with the kind of creative limitations that remind you you are meant to be a sensitive human being.
My partner and I did the opposite. We grew up in the Inland Empire and moved to Portland. Bike commuting the whole time. We've still had several long commutes here, but they just don't have the misery factor or the intense daily risk. Much more than the grocery checker, nearly everyone considers you to have some deficiency if you don't drive. For example, it is used as a major discriminator for jobs and dating. Some things are really unexpected, like not being allowed to wear a backpack in a store. It was a good place to leave.
While we vote for infrastructure and may be able to help better choices come about in places like Sunbelt cities, we also pay taxes into building and supporting the infrastructure these cities support. Essentially, we are supporting the project, the values, that the city/state/country we live in supports. We do it through taxes, and we do it by engaging in their economy. ...but CityNerd is in a better position to instigate change than we ever were, so thank you for that! Good luck!
(Btw, a big trick for the heat is to travel at the ends of the day and nap in the middle. Mornings and evenings are usually pretty nice weather.)
"ALL is a lot to manage." Words to live by! You're doing good work of pro-transit evangelism. I'm lucky to have lived car-free half of my adult life--but that was mostly the half when I lived in big cities, mostly outside the US. I lasted fewer than 2 years car-free when I had to live in car-centric American suburbs. My love of transit (the community feeling, the long fresh air walks to bus stops) was challenged every day by this overwhelming, shamed feeling that "I'm not supposed to do this."
A high capacity for awkwardness is KEY to living car-free in the USA. People in the US have a hard time believing that being driven by a professional in a publicly owned depreciating asset while you read a book or play Sim City on your phone is fun. No one is rude, but I'm acutely sensitive to the culture around me and I want to fit in. That talent for fitting in has helped me living in places like Yemen, Egypt and South Korea, but it's a nightmare in the States. Apparently fitting in there these days would mean buying a giant truck. And aside from the money, I'm more of a SmartCar kind of girl.
I'm trying to take courage from your journey, because I need to move back to the States next year and there's no way I can afford to own a car there. But I'm scared going from a country where transit is easy to a country where it's hard. I know I'm going to feel the peer pressure.
(edited: spacing)
Sunbelt dweller here. I went car free in Phoenix for about 4 months, over one summer. Not too bad. Commuted to work by bus and on most days would bring my folding bike along. The bus ride was about 40 minutes then I had to walk (20 mins) or bike (
Yeah, small motorcycles or scooters really can't be beat. My Kymco 150 goes 45 mph with ease, goes all week for $5 in gas and I never get caught in traffic as lane splitting in Vegas is legal.
I told my family that I don’t want a car in Vegas cause I can’t afford a place and a car. I got suggested to live in my car
I wonder if that's actually the more common option.
@@falsemcnuggethope must be brutal during the summer months though.
The summer lasts 6 months so it’s awful most of the year
This was my favorite video ever. We live along an original streetcar route in Cleveland and aside from driving to work we have been able to make the best out of an otherwise pedestrian-hostile city. I totally understand the trade-offs. Great job!
Great video! I sold my car at the height of the pandemic - a 2019 Honda Fit - when people were stopping me In parking lots asking to buy it. Sold for $3000 more than I paid for it - unheard of. I was living in Baltimore and able to walk to work. I had long been thinking of going car free but kept thinking of reasons why I couldn’t. Then I just did it, dang it! All was fine - work went remote so I didn’t have to suffer a bad days’ walk to work. But - then we were all laid off. The next job I landed was in Los Angeles - and I’m still car-free! I was able to find a rent stabilized apartment walkable to work - the silver lining of the pandemic has made grocery delivery competitive and I’m getting more exercise than ever before. Is there a lot of Los Angeles that I am not seeing without a car? You bet. But I’m convinced I wouldn’t be seeing it with a car. I walk and walk. And keep more money in the bank. And yeah - good for the planet too. But - I might be starting to choose friends based on what kind of car they drive. Is that so wrong?
3 grand for a vehicle from 2019?
Jeez thats hella cheap...
@@davidty2006 dude - sold for 3 grand more than I paid for it at the dealer - made money off the car purchase - thanks to supply chain probs and I think Honda ended the Fit. I felt like Happy Rockefeller. For a while anyway.
Your point about how free you feel really nails it. I had spent the first 26 years of my life living in car-dependent sprawl. One month in a walkable area was mind-blowing in terms of how free and light I felt not having to bring 2 tons of car with me every time I leave my home.
I relate to this video, I live car free in RVA (Richmond) and people always wanna know where I'm parked! I don't really bike for transit (sometimes I do for exercise) but I work within a half mile of my abode and take the bus most places within city limits. Sometimes it does get a lil' frustrating when I want to go somewhere off the beaten path but that's what Lyft is for... One thing you didn't address is that some people don't know how or just don't like to drive!
I personally don't like driving but i atleast make sure I'm a safe driver. There are lots of people with licenses who are definitely unqualified to be drivers (including people who like to drive).
I think the best argument for improving non-car infrastructure is that once people don't HAVE to drive we can tighten up testing standards to have fewer and better drivers. (Which would also boost pedestrian safety when you don't have idiots operating 2ton steel boxes at 50mph 2ft away from you. School buses are the safest vehicles on the road and 50% of that is design and 50% is driver standards making normal license standards look like a joke.)
I took the same challenge in 2021 after moving from Henderson to downtown vegas. My $400 monthly fuel bills for my V8 Mercedes SUV were a motivating factor. I miss the trails of Henderson, I used them to get everywhere especially in Green Valley. It's nice travelling the paths there without worrying about cars trying to hit you, no breathing in exhaust fumes, travelling through nice neighborhoods. It is very nice. I live in downtown now, in order to get to work I have to go past the Stratosphere and Naked City. Outside of being offered blow jobs and having crazy people scream at me for no reason , I can say it hasn't been too bad. Though it's definitely a little more dangerous because the bike lanes are only in the Arts District and certain areas downtown. I've had a few close calls. Weather wise, yes there were 2 months where it was brutal. That was it. So living car free or car lite is certainly something that can be done.
We live car-free with a toddler (and one on the way) in Madison, WI- a city with respectable bike paths, and public transportation that is workable but lacking (which is relevant as it is winter 6 months out of the year). We had been car-free for a decade in Chicago, and didn't even consider getting a car after moving to WI and starting a family. I can tell you that most people are genuinely shocked to hear that we manage without a car with a young child. I will say, being car-free is definitely much harder with kids, particularly when it comes to public transit. Young kids (especially babies) need a lot of stuff, and hauling it all on the bus can be no fun (and sometimes not possible if a bus is full). That being said, I still enjoy our car-free lifestyle, and we definitely benefit immensely from the cost-savings.
I have ideas for a RUclips channel specifically on the topic of Car-Free parenting, as there is nothing (at all) on this topic available. However, motherhood, pregnancy, and this pesky PhD I'm working on keep delaying me. In the meantime, any chance you'd be interested in a video about Car-Free Parenting? There are so many ways that having kids changes this experience. Long distance travel is a big one- suddenly, renting a car to drive across the US is unfortunately cheaper than train/plane tickets for your whole family, children in diapers don't do well on long-distance bus rides.... it's a lot.
Love the channel, and I let me know if you want input from an authentic car-free parent!
So inspiring. Really keen to reduce my car dependency out here in rural England and definitely feeling like I wouldn't being going mad just to scrap the car and hire one the once or twice a month I actually need it.
There are lots of workarounds! Thanks for your support.
Part of the reason that people have cars in the first place is that insurers, governments, and car rental companies don’t make it easy to rent a car occasionally. If you have a “free” place to park a car, which many people do because of parking minimums, owning a car for occasional use isn’t that much more expensive than renting a car say 11 weekends per year and one week per year, especially when I can also use it to reduce my expenses by driving to less expensive retailers in the suburbs (Walmart, Costco, etc.) I think if people had cheaper access to rental cars they would be more open to not owning a car in the first place.
1. Non-owner insurance policies aren’t significantly cheaper than owners’ policies. My umbrella insurance requires that I have an auto policy in the first place.
2. If you drop auto insurance and someday choose to go back to car ownership, your insurance rates will be extremely high.
3. Governments and airport authorities love to load up rental cars with taxes and mandatory fees on the theory that they’ll only be paid by tourists.
4. Renting a car outside of normal business hours off-airport is difficult. Most airport locations operate 24 hours a day, but charge higher rental fees (partially because of point #3).
Any car-share (pay by the hour/mile) schemes in your area?
Very good points! When I lived car free I tried all kinds of apps like get around, Turo, maven, etc. In addition to renting a car from the usual car rental places. App based car rentals came close to $100/day! They had convenient neighborhood pick up options, but $100/day is a lot!
The limited hours of neighborhood car rentals made them basically a non starter and going to the airport would incur a big time and cost penalty. So mostly I just didn’t rent a car and ended up feeling kind of trapped.
I totally understand what you mean by people looking at you weird at TJ's when you tell them your primary mode of transport is by bike! I live in a medium sized red city in Texas and more than one person has assumed that I don't drive because I got a DUI! I just like to ride my bike man!
I’m living in Tallinn Estonia, always find it amazing how difficult it is to cycle in the states, I’ve not owned a car in 20 years, we have trams ( light rail) on all major routes out to the edge of the city, then buses to get you to where you live, best thing about that is it’s free to residents, we don’t mind paying slightly higher taxes for this either.
This is a fantastic video that pairs extremely well with the rest of the videos on this channel. It’s refreshing to hear that you’ve been “on the front lines” with regards to frequently using car alternatives in a rather hostile area. The final note on trying to make local transportation changes today instead of waiting for things to simply materialize into a well-maintained, well-connected, and well-protected network is so important as well. Keep it up! :)
It's hard -- I don't want people to "settle" for poorly planned/designed cities, but it's all very chicken/egg stuff. A city needs people who are visibly trying (struggling) to live their values. We can't be invisible. I don't want people to imperil themselves, either! Hard to find the right balance.
We have such a dearth of good RUclips content about Australian cities, I think Aussies would really appreciate an analysis of the urban spaces in them large cities (and also Canberra for it's super weirdness I think you might find interesting as a bizarre case study). Australia fits into the US/Canada canon of being a country that expanded fast in the 20th century with questionable car-focused urban design choices mixed with sprawling suburbia.
I'm curious to know more!
@@jessamineprice5803 Just imagine America with fewer 'trucks'. Sort of abomination light!
100% agreed, there are some good small channels out there like Building Beautifully and I've started making some Australian urbanism videos but there is definitely a lack, especially considering some of the big changes our cities are going through at the moment
I live carefree in Portland. Enjoyed your report. Last weekend I met a new friend at another friend's and I said I'd been car free in Portland for a year and a half and you should have seen his jaw drop. And he lives in Portland and he can't imagine that you can live your car free.
Bizarre! A car would be such a millstone in Portland!
I have a friend who works in city planning for the city of Henderson and I've been sending him your videos.
Personally, as a person who left Las Vegas to Portland and took a career in planning, I love that you bring both cities into your videos! I think it’s great for good planners to live in kind of urban-hostile places to work on improving them!
Hi Sean!
I appreciate you pointing out how difficult it is for many people to live in truly walkable areas. I live near Charlotte, NC in a house I bought because I knew it would eventually be connected to a Greenway (it's under construction now!!) I can't see a scenario where I'm car free but hoping to be car light when I can safely bike places. Drivers scare me, I know they hate cyclists and I just want to avoid them at all costs. I'm so grateful to be able to be connected to a separated pathway soon.
I really enjoyed your closing point. We shouldn't always wait for perfect conditions to use a car less often. If you're passionate about changing cities for the better, do what Freddie Mercury said and "GET ON YOUR BIKES AND RIDE!"
I love this video!! I just ditched my car and am discovering how I can get creative to avoid needing to drive. It’s certainly easier than I expected. Lucky to be in Seattle.
Jer , do you bike in Seattle? I know Seattle has about as many hills as the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, where I live, and I’m thinking of how a biker gets around in the hills there. Thanks in advance
@@DanielinLaTuna
I haven’t started biking here yet. For the most part, I can get everything I need on foot, except commuting to work, which is too far to bike (I take the bus). I do bike around my workplace, but that’s outside Seattle in a flatter area.
@@Jer_Schmidt , thanks for sharing. Seattle is a great city. I’ve visited several times. The only thing I didn’t like was that it could be confusing at times, especially at car-speeds. If I wasn’t in the correct lane I’d be forced into an unexpected detour sometimes. On a bike you have more decision time.
My brother lives in the hills above Portland, which is also a walkable town. But the hike up to his house can be taxing. He tries to avoid driving when he can.
@@DanielinLaTuna
An ebike makes the hills way more manageable! They're pricey but still waaay cheaper than having a car. It's allowed me to live car-free in a very hilly place. One often overlooked benefit of the motor is it gives me the ability to carry heavy stuff up hills! I can haul my 30lbs of groceries up a steep hill without breaking a sweat. I see tons of people carrying children and dogs too! Hell, I once saw a cargo ebike carrying two golden retrievers up a big hill...
You can definitely make it work with a regular bike (and you'll get super strong in the process) but i think ebikes are also a great option
@@DanielinLaTuna
For sure, Seattle is a nightmare to drive in. That’s kind of what makes it great for everyone who doesn’t drive though.
When I first moved here I lived in Bellevue, across the lake from Seattle. It is VERY car-centric. I avoided Seattle altogether because I was scared to drive here. I didn’t discover how great it was until I started taking the bus into Seattle to explore on weekends. It’s like a different world over here, only 6 miles away.
Great summary! Living car free in Winnipeg and hailing from transit oriented Europe, a lot of this rings true. It can be a challenge, but one I actually enjoy and wouldn't want to change. One just ends up structuring their life around different priorities and I think I'd rather prefer mine. And if it wasn't for us holding out here, who would drive the change for these places to become better?
I've actually met a bunch of people in Vegas (through the channel) who are really working to make the city better for walking, biking and transit. It's inspiring!
"drive the change" lol
I live in Winnipeg too!!! One of the great advantages is that some of the most central neighbourhoods for our spoke and wheel transit system are still some of the most affordable - unlike (real) London or New York where the centre is more expensive. We also have a really fantastic car-share coop.
I'm proud of you for extending your boundaries and learning new things! Thanks for researching for all of us.
You didn't mention that some people have no choice but to live car-free, no matter where they are. The very existence of the poor, the handicapped or severely elderly is not part of the pretty picture of life in car-dependent America. But thanks for trying to make it work if for no other reason than you make me so glad I live in San Francisco where I can and do walk to almost everything I want to and at any time of year. Yes, SF has very good transit by American standards, and yes, I have a car. But I'm in my 80s and the real freedom of living in an urban environment is not to bike, use transit or drive, but to simply step out my front door and walk in a fairly short time to most everything I really need or want and get exercise while doing it. That's also my suggestion for a topic: walkable cities and walkable neighborhoods, the ultimate in environmentally friendly transit.
I was forced into living car free in the early summer when the transmission died on the used car I bought back in February. Fast forward to now and I've switched jobs to something much closer to me and am biking pretty much everywhere except for major grocery trips. On top of that my baseline physical and mental health are probably better than they've been in my entire adult life so far. It's definitely challenging due to where I live (Orlando suburbs, about 5 miles northeast of downtown) not being the most bike friendly outside of my immediate neighborhood, but I don't know if I ever want to go back.
I commend your commitment to biking across Orlando outside of the Lake Eola area. I grew up without a car in suburban Kissimmee and hated my existence there. Was so glad to move to Gainesville for college.
When I also owned a small BMW boxer-engine motorcycle in addition to my car, I took it to the Costco pharmacy to get a few things. But I got shopping-fever once inside and bought a bunch of stuff.
I went out to the parking lot looking for my car, until I remembered I was traveling car-free.
I had to call my dad for a ride.
So, yeah, sometimes you need a car
@@AssBlasster I'm very lucky to live in a relatively cheap duplex RIGHT outside of Baldwin Park which is filled to the brim with biking trails and bike infrastructure but yeah once I venture out of this area or like Audubon Park it gets pretty bleak and hostile. Trips up/down 436 are ESPECIALLY heinous as the sidewalk design is horrific and there's no way I'm riding on that 45+ mph road with no bike lane.
@@JacobPadlock Oh yeah Baldwin Park is a pretty good neighborhood too. 436 is just the norm unfortunately. I grew up along US-192 near Disney and John Young Parkway, which were slightly better with either super wide sidewalks or some gap between the sidewalk and road. But yeah I would never ride in the bike lanes along any Orlando stroad either.
Very good video. Thank you again.
Here is an idea for a topic for your channel. I live in New York City. I was born and raised here though I haven’t lived here all my life. The City has some impressive stats for low car ownership and good penetration of mass transit. A high fraction of residents use bikes for transportation, though this is “high” relative to the rest of the country. I’m sure it’s well below 5%, but in many areas of the city, the fact that cycling is normal is very visible. We have Citi Bike, a bike share program. The program doesn’t offer helmets. Some people choose to bring their own helmets. This is so common that now, the sight of someone wearing a helmet and NOT riding a bike is also normal, because the observer can assume that the helmet wearer is either on the way to or from a bike ride. This is an indication of cycling’s penetration. AND YET, with all the good numbers and trends, it’s a terrible city for getting around on all modes. Traffic is brutal, and many drivers are hostile to pedestrians and cyclists. The death rate by traffic violence for pedestrians and cyclists is rising rapidly. Mass transit is so unreliable at times that it is one of the reasons cycling’s popularity has increased. So perhaps you could do a video on why the numbers and all the don’t tell the complete picture. As has happened lately in many cities, motorized two-wheeled vehicles are getting popular, and they are under-regulated and under-enforced. We now have people driving motorcycles and similar things in bike lanes, terrifying cyclists and pedestrians, and that’s just one of many problems. If I had an action camera, I could make footage of the crazy things car drivers do to endanger us. And this is now that, in some ways, they have learned to treat us better than before. The City has added many bike lanes and bike facilities, and now many residents think this is a big mistake. They feel that these facilities are the cause of traffic congestion. They are mistaken, but I understand why they think so. The cause is that more people are driving, and this is in a city where traffic has been hellish since before the invention of the car. I suggest you follow the NYC DOT Facebook page. Every day, they publish things about DOT projects and admonishions to drive carefully. The majority of responses come from people who think that the improvements are detrimental and bikes and bike facilities are grand mistakes. It can be entertaining or infuriating, depending on your point of view.
100% agree. Born and raised in NYC also, almost 40 years and never owned a car. Didn’t drive til 35. Why is transit so difficult here? I think bc NYC is also trying to have it all instead of just focusing on public transportation. Hoping congestion pricing solves this.
Video Suggestion Ideas: Storage Units. I was listen to a podcast on thrift stores and the the guest on the broadcast brought up the statistic that 75% of all garage space in LA can no longer be used for cars because it is being taken up by things. The speak er also brought up the fact that storage space in some places costs more than rent. Maybe this isn't an urbanist topic but given the minimalist message in this video I think it could be an interesting topic. (The podcast was EconTalks, Episode: Adam Minter on Secondhand). Second video suggestion: a video on trailer parks. They are definitely an interesting use of land, and deserve a discussion imo. Last video suggestion of the week is a bit weak, top 10 "urbanist" libraries.
One thing I’d suggest, about the lack of bike parking, is to Google the shopping center property management or address + owner, and you can usually contact them asking to accommodate bike racks. I’ve done this at 5 properties where I live and 3 of them installed bike racks after just one attempt!
missing the bus by 2 seconds (and the next one is in 30 minutes) is my road rage. edit- the bus came early. wasn't my fault. (still overall way less anxiety than driving)
yeah, it isn't fun when the service is that bad.
Tbh in places like Japan (cities, not rural) the train is so regular it's not a problem - unless you're the type to wait until the last minute for transfers lol. We need to build the infrastructure up first.
Yeah I felt bad as soon as I posted this because like most people here i very much prefer car-free living and I did for a while and learned the bus (on an iffy route) certainly has its stresses too. But much less so than cars.
the bus comes once per hour where I am in Orlando 🙃
Well if you're in LA/OC you won't have to worry about the bus being early - ever. He also conveniently left out other bus travelers who make it unsafe, or like you just did a pick up at a mental hospital. Really woundnt want to wait for a late bus in 108* heat. I've heard Henderson is a great place to live tho
This is the one I've been waiting for. I live in a walking and biking paradise, the little college town of Davis, California. Like maybe half of the CA population, however, I'm thinking about a posible move to Las Vegas because of fun things to do, and the phenominally lower overall cost of living. This video is a really useful and helpful view of your experience there so far.
I did that for a few months but had a really short commute. Way too hot was my problem. Being on a bike was so novel in LV, that motorists tended to give me lots of room. I also liked how flat the terrain is.
Your descriptions of what it's like to live car-free, the effect it has on your life from a psychological standpoint, is very much in line with my experience. The complete lack of stress associated with vehicle ownership, the lack of stress from driving which itself is the most stressful thing most people do on a regular basis, opens up a whole mental space to direct towards more fulfilling activities. Looking back on it, car ownership occupied the same sort of mental space for me as like a debilitating injury, or a severe drug addiction, you don't realize how it's been negatively affecting you until it goes away.
I do woodworking as a very intensive hobby. People probably think I'm crazy for not owning a truck and personally driving out to lumber mills to hand pick my own lumber like the youtubers do. But while having wood shipped by freight to your doorstep is really freaking expensive, it does not even come close to the cost of car ownership, and this isn't even going into the cost of tools and other equipment. This is an extremely expensive but rewarding and fulfilling craft, and aside from being able to afford it, I don't think I would be able to enjoy it if I had to sit in traffic stimulating my fight or flight response on a regular basis.
This is my "judiciously selected some."
Learning city planning in the USA seems kind of like going to Weight Watchers at McDonald's.
BIKE safely! Want you to stick around for more great content.
Living car-lite (we own 1 car that my wife drives, I commute via bike/bus) in Charlotte, NC. It’s about 10 miles from downtown and 5 from any continuous sidewalks. It can be really easy to live like that if you’re near a bus route and a single route goes along your neighborhood and your work (+ other amenities). Otherwise, it can be a huge pain.
Think I’m going to stick with it though, I will have “saved” nearly $10k by Feb 2023 after 12 months of riding. Money kept in my pocket, semi-daily mandatory (but fun) exercise, and a somewhat stress free commute beats having to own and drive a car.
Love your videos, Ray! Keep up the good work.
Many great points mentioned here and not crazy at all. I live in a small mountain town in Colorado, that happens to have great public transportation. Using it saves so much money in your day to day commute. I had the pleasure of taking buses and biking to 10 trailheads that summited 14ers here this summer. You do not need a car for sure. I own an SUV for camping and accessing remote areas, but it's merely a toy.
I visited Las Vegas for 5 days many years ago as in New Yorker I decided I would walk around like a New Yorker. 6 hours into that notion I realized that was not possible. I was young and ignorant and just thought that people didn't try hard enough 🤣🤣
I honestly want to move to Portland someday. I loathe the idea of having to drive to get anywhere and just want somewhere I can walk or use a scooter to get to.
I lived a version of the life you describe from 2000-2007: Las Vegas by bike, bus and foot -- plus the right seat of an 18-wheeler from time to time. I was based at the corner of Viking and Mountain Vista, near Sam's Town. I worked as a "lumper", loading and unloading long-haul moving trucks all over the valley. I second your observations, and I have lore for you.
An essential purchase for the heat is a 10 pack of white bandanas. Wear one under your helmet and stop frequently to re-soak the rag and to drink. Note that in my thumbnail I am wearing just such a cranial air conditioner.
It was an easy 3 miles to Boulder Highway and Mojave, where the moving company warehouses are. In the Vegas sprawl of that vintage there are residential streets like Mountain Vista and Florrie, which parallel the main drags and are much safer -- unplanned bike paths. However, much of the mover's-helper business was to meet a driver at one of the truck stops along I-15, or show up at the customer's house at the same time as the truck. That's just a matter of starting early enough.
Key for me was the fact that not many people rode bikes in Vegas, so it was quite rare to have the rack full on the front of the bus. I could ride to the nearest arterial, hop on with my pass, read a few chapters, then ride the last mile to the work site. I found the buses to be punctual and reliable. My favorite was working in the west, because the valley slopes southeast. That made the run home all downhill in a self-created breeze. On W. Sahara it was easy to outpace the buses with gravity on the team.
A friend and I also rode for fun, often at night to skip the heat. Coasting Pittman Wash at 5am, with the sky lightening ahead, is a bigger win than any casino can offer. One more thing -- one of the many Vegas aphorisms: "The only difference between Hell and Las Vegas is that you are allowed to leave Las Vegas." So I did.
Great comment, will consider the white bandanas. Thanks!
Videos like this make me realise how lucky I am for growing up in a village with good bike and pedestrian infrastructure and the bus service luckily was expanded quite bit by the age where longer distances become important.
Thank you for finally explaining why you moved to Vegas. :) I would be glad to have you here if you decide to move sometime. I am currently slightly easier to live in car-free than the sunbelt..
Props to you! I find this to be extremely inspirational since I've always wanted to go car-free, but was afraid of the failures/difficulties that will come with it in (most of) our country. It inspires me to see that you're making it work. Keep it up!
We did the commuter thing for 25 years because we could only afford to live within bout 65 km of where I worked. I moved from driving all the way to a Byzantine commute of driving-train-walking -bus-walking or drive-train-cycle (in decent weather as the trails are not cleared in the winter). I guess I could have worked closer etc, but I liked (until the end) where I was working and what I thought I was contributing. Then I retired and we relocated 300 km from Toronto to a town of 2000 with the nearest larger town having about 50000 people. I wanted a bit of land after spending 30 years in first an apartment and then 6 feet from my neighbour's brick walls and thus stared fully curtained windows most of the time. I could have been living anywhere. Now, I have a natural vista out of whichever window I choose to look. I have a backyard I can use etc.
We went from his and hers cars to one car and a 'tractor'. Having a SUV is nice for picking stuff up from the lumber yard or towing a trailer etc. Furthermore, it can be towed behind the RV. I only use it when I need it and otherwise drive it around the block every two weeks to keep it fresh.
Now, an RV is not GHG friendly of course, BUT ours barely goes 5000 km per year and gives us a comfort of travel that is otherwise unequalled for the cost. Depending on the estimates, this amount of CO2 would be produced in about 14h of flying commercially for two people.
There are no transit options in my town and few in the area and in fact taking the bus from my town to the larger town 40 km away to buy groceries, aside from the difficulty of carrying all the stuff would cost about $10 (one way), where I can do this trip using my PHEV car (which in summer is charged via the solar arrays on my RV) for about $2.50. (And the bus stop is over 3 km from my home)
So, I think what is perhaps important here is not necessarily living car free, but being responsible as one can be about the cars you do drive. A pickup truck is as much a status symbol as it is necessary for carting stuff around. I would wager that half the pickups out there are just people feeling their oats and are not reasonable as a daily driver. So perhaps an idea that might help some folks who want to do some better is what choices can folks make who live a way from urban centres, where transit and/or cycling are not practical options for day to day. Thanks for your work. Glad to see the channel growing. Henri
I've lived (mostly) happily in Los Angeles car-free and it's only getting easier each year as the rail network expands. Thank you for affirming my odd lifestyle choice.
So much wisdom in this video. Who in their right mind would want to "have it all"? That's such a huge burden. Sadly, you first have to experience the freedom that NOT owning a car will give you before truly understanding it. I did and it feels great. Thanks for reminding me.
i agree. ive been a partial minimalist by force for 6 years now, now its by choice. i dont waste my time shopping, not with the joneses etc. i havent given up my car because i use it for income but as somsone that used to own multiple cars in the past, it was always expensive, and working on them, etc. im much happier now without all the toys.
Great video! I'm really inspired by your car free lifestyle in Vegas of all places. That's truly impressive. I also lived in Portland OR for a time. Small world. Love you content keep up the great work. I think you are truly making a difference. You and Not Just Bikes awoke me to the issues in American city planning. I'm sure you are doing the same for many others, so thank you for all the work you do.
so well said--i fully agree--thank you, bless you, City Nerd!!1
I'm from Kansas City and currently live in Pittsburgh. I used to think my hometown (which I firmly believe is underappreciated in urbanist circles) was about as car-oriented as it gets. This channel and others on RUclips have shown me there is a lot worse.
While most of the other things you listed are definitely externalities that EVs share with gas cars (except noise as you said), I have to disagree with you on CO2 emissions and particulate matter. EVs use energy they acquire form the grid (~75% including losses from energy production and powertrain efficiency) much more efficiently than gas cars use the energy stored in gas (~15% including losses from oil refinement, transport and engine efficiency).
This is reflected in the MPGe of EVS, which is how many miles an EV can go with 33.7 kWh of electricity, the average amount of energy stored in a gallon of gasoline. Tesla sells the most efficient EVs and also by far the largest number of EVs, and all of their models have an MPGe of 100+, with the Model 3 reaching 142! Not even your standard hybrid reaches an MPG above 60. So even if the grid is powered by fossil fuels, EVs outperform gas cars by far in terms of not only producing less greenhouse gases but also less particulate matter. Not to mention that the pollution is localized at the powerplants rather than the streets.
Plus, every EV comes with regenerative braking, which reverses the electric motors of an EV and feeds energy back into the battery to add some range and improve efficiency, slowing down the car in the process without the use of brake pads! This is why brake pads take so long to replace in an EV, because people only need to use them when they have to slow down quickly! Otherwise, the car slows down and comes to a complete stop by itself without the driver hitting the brake, thereby reducing the particulate matter produced by brake pads!
You said that fossil fuels make up 80% of our energy generation, but it is actually closer to 60% since 10% comes from nuclear and almost 30% comes from the rapidly growing renewable sector. In fact, last year new energy generation (which replaces old energy plants and accounts for increased energy demand) was 81% renewable, the rest being natural gas. So the grid is definitely getting greener, and the GHG emissions of EVs will continue to plummet as a result!
I definitely think that it's better to bike and use transit whenever you can, as those are truly the best ways to reduce emissions and improve your health as well as the health of those surrounding you. However, battery electric vehicles are extremely useful for many cases! For one, electric buses will reduce the super loud noises that diesel buses make that annoy me as a cyclist and pedestrian. And for those that need to own a car or to use one for ridesharing and renting as you mentioned, EVs will be very important for them.
I do agree that thinking EVs will solve all our problems is absolutely incorrect, since if we still don't do anything about our abhorrent car-centric infrastructure most of our problems will not be solved. But I guess the point I'm trying to make is that they do solve some problems :)
Yes! Could hardly believe he just skipped over this. 👍
I live in the sunbelt too my favorite place to walk is downtown Tempe, AZ. Would love to see what you think of Tempe as it is somewhat paradoxical, great walking some places and atrocious in others.
Yea, it would be interesting to see his thoughts on the light rail from central Phoenix to Mesa. Plus Old Town Scottsdale. Old Town has incredible urbanism potential.
The light rail makes visiting Phoenix more appealing. I usually plan my visit around it. It's the same in Minneapolis /St. Paul .
@@basedoz5745 unfortunately the citizens of Scottsdale will never vote for light rail extensions into Scottsdale because they think it will bring along poor people
@@patrickrivas2159 not to mention they think buildings over 4 stories are skyscrapers lol
I have mixed feelings about living car free. I have lived about 5 years car free. Three in my undergraduate in a small college town and two in Austin. Soon I will be living in a place that is virtually impossible to live car free (Lincoln). Echoing what you said it is possible, and I am better off financially for it. I feel better about my impact on the environment too. It has made me more thrifty and conscious about where I live and work. However, there was a common thread between all of those five years: I had a friend who had a car. There were always activities, (sometimes even as basic as shopping) or places I could only go with my friends car. I don't think this has ever hurt my relationships but it does begin to drag on me continually having to ask. Living car free, definitely limits your range of motion. Particularly with time constraints, trying to take the bus somewhere that was 2+ miles away is so time consuming in my day that it is not worth it 90% of the time. In that way I feel like a second class citizen when I can't leave the city for a walk in a park or go to the roller rink when I am the only one that wants to go. I definitely want to live more years car free, but there are drawbacks for sure.
Carsharing companies are a great option if it's available where you are.
I enjoyed living car free in Chicago, and found it easy to get just about anywhere I wanted to go. But then, like you, I moved to Lincoln. I was car free there for a year, not out of choice really, but due to not already having a car from my ten years without one in Chicago, and not having the money for one. I chose an apartment near a grocery store, but farther from work. I would take the bus most of the time, but it doesn't run frequently enough. I would sometimes walk the two miles to and two miles back from work. I eventually got a car, and while I wish I could live car free again, it just isn't very realistic in Lincoln (or Tucson where I am now located).
A bus for 2 miles ? Wouldn't you use a bike for such distance (plm 15- minute ride). I had the impression that Austin is improving their bike network quite well ... ( but maybe I'm too optimistic aubout that) ..
I have been carefree for 6 years. Now granted 3 of those years I was in a transit friendly(for north America at least) suburb, 2 of those years I spend in a suburban waste land. Legit couldn't do anything without a car and so I didn't go anywhere or do anything. Now this year I am in LA car free. For the most part I don't have to rely on friends with cars. Outside of the suburban blackhole. Now I do have to use ride shares mostly for late night activities. But like half the time my car friends use ride share as well.
Just wish there was more options in terms of car rental/sharing though. That would make things perfect.
I grew up in Lincoln and found it pretty easy to get pretty much anywhere in town by bike, but that was 25 years ago. Lincoln has a great network of bike trails and in the older parts of town, the street grid make it easy to ride down a quiet residential street just a block over from a busy arterial. Sadly, the growth of the city over the past couple of decades has been almost entirely car-oriented sprawl.
I am a non-car person in Vegas, and my biggest beef is with the frequency of RTC buses. The "high-frequency" buses only arrive 15 minutes apart, only during a specific part of the day, and most bus routes aren't "high-frequency." This makes going anyplace that will require a bus transfer, all but impossible in a reasonable amount of time. I live more-or-less at the intersection of two of those high-frequency routes, but if my destination isn't close to one of those routes, I feel like I have no choice but to call Lyft/Uber.
I was waiting for him to say "it's a dry heat," and I was rewarded
I've been car-free for the first time in my life for 2 months now. Really loving it so far, but I'm sure it's a lot easier to do in Chicago than in Vegas
a lot of people are urbanists precisely because the area they are based out of troubles them
I've been living car free in Philadelphia for 19 years. I'm 43, own my house free and clear, and proud to say I've never owned a car in my life.
Been waiting for a topic like this to be addressed, thanks. We look for opportunities be car-less where possible.
Thank you for making this video. As someone somewhat in a similar situation, living in a suburban area with some potential (South Bay near Los Angeles) I have been trying to take steps into becoming nearly car-free. Only big obstacle for me is the work commute of 15 mi. This inspires me to keep at it.
Fellow South Bayer here. Would love to know how it works out for you. I'm stuck in Torrance for the time being & want to wean myself off cars but this is a tough area to be car-free.
@@angellacanfora grew up in Torrance also, it’s tough to live car-free out here. Though I just so happen to live near a grocery store, some decent parks, and the Old Town. Torrance Transit line 3 also tends to be consistent enough (at least as public transportation here could be) that I use it whenever I wanna hit up the beach. I cycle a lot also but bike infrastructure is terrible here. I say that there may be some potential for improvement though because the South Bay has been trying to get some sort of local travel network plan for micromobility vehicles going, though idk how long this will take. That and the Torrance Transit Center, which is not ideal (park and ride) but may help with commutes. Stuck here also for work and I’m a Gen Z’er who can’t afford rent that has to live with their parents so I’m just doing the best I could. Ideally I’d like to check out Hermosa Beach even though it’s even more expensive just cause South Bay people always say that it’s the probably the most walkable city here with decent nightlife.