Earth Day 2026: What it's like to live in a car-free town in America
Posted by Sixteen-Cylinders@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 116 comments
Posted by Sixteen-Cylinders@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 116 comments
armchairracer@reddit
I love the idea of not being car dependent, but I'm always curious what people who live in a community like this do for work. Unless you work from home you have to live pretty close to work, which means either moving every time you change jobs, or never changing jobs. Obviously if we had better public transit in this country that would help, but that's probably not happening any time soon.
MembershipNo2077@reddit
Well this particular type of community is for rich people. They wouldn't tolerate poor folks being near them.
But I live in a fairly walkable area and I work from home. Many of my neighbors work nearby or close enough to bike/scooter -- I know a couple work in the restaurants nearby. It's not the richest area so there's a lot of service workers who bike/walk to work.
But some still drive to work, it's just usually not a super far drive so it's nbd, some just drive to the nearby metro.
But I live in a city so distances are low, I think it's not feasible in almost any suburbs.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
A huge portion of this nations poorest people do not have access to any car.
MembershipNo2077@reddit
And often they would benefit the most from walkable areas, but they are often the ones denied it: sent to food deserts, neighborhoods bisected by highways, and jobs that require commuting by underfunded buses.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
That first comment makes a lot less sense then.
trail-g62Bim@reddit
I think by definition, being in a walkable area would require fixing the other issues. Being in a food desert means being a certain distance from the nearest grocery store. Being a walkable area means things like grocery stores are a walkable distance.
kicker58@reddit
I live in a suburb that easy to get around by bike and public transit. It's the best. I get to take the cargo bike several times a week to work. Drop off a kids at daycare on the way in. It's the best quality time with kids. My wife bikes to the metro 2 times a week and loves her commute. Saved a shit ton of money as well. And yes we ride all year round, and yes it gets cold. It oddly enough makes winter way more fun. My older kid love biking to pick up his sister from daycare. He also mountain bikes and all that at 6. It's incredible what a path system can do. I like cars but the dependency on them for everything just sucks. I will take biking and public transit any day over car dependency . Also please car industry bring back small electric cars. Like why the giant suv ones.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Sounds like oulu.
Cargo bike ftw
FeldMonster@reddit
Forget work, how do they handle every other aspect of life? Daycare drop off, groceries, afterschool activities for children, home improvement supplies, etc. I can't physically carry all of that, either on a bike or by hand.
kicker58@reddit
Electric cargo bikes are the best thing ever! I can easily carry 2 kids and groceries. And not have to walk with kids through a parking lot. It's super easy. The other day I loaded up my cargo bike to do trail maintenance. I have 4 thick cement blocks and 6 4' long pieces of wood. Was no problem to carry into the woods. Hell I have carried 2 kids, a kids bike, groceries, and back packs for kids dropoff.
SophistXIII@reddit
That shit would get stolen in record time where I live.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Not with modern locks
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
Not in New York. People ride around on scooter with angle grandees conveyed to car batteries stealing high end bikes. You need something that stops angle grinders. Not cheap. I had multiple Cargo bikes and stored the in indoor storage.
kicker58@reddit
People in nyc have them. Not hard to secure them and insure them
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
I’ve been riding a bike in nyc for twenty years. The best defense if not parking a high end bike outside over night. People with high end bike that have to lock up outside occasionally will have an additions lower end bike.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Thats exactly what the new locks do bud.
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
They just make you change the grinding wheel. Overnight parking an expensive bike outside is a bad idea here. Same thing with a motorcycle.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Lol changing the grinding wheel 5x doesnt sound like an issie with theft?
Im guessing youre a fella whose never heard of cargobikemomma either...
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Or they just carry 5 grinders in the trunk of their car/bed of their truck, take your bike in 5 minutes, and its gone. A good bikelock isnt stopping a determined thief, sure it makes it a little longer, but its not stopping anything.
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
They have locks now that take 10+ minutes to cut through.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Same, bikes get stolen all the time up in Philly, you can't have a nice one like that, you're gonna inevitably have it get stolen and be a few grand in the hole.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Try having one of them in my local city (Wilmington Delaware or Philly), shit would get stolen in about 4 seconds after you park it.
kicker58@reddit
How do you plan on taking that on a trail for trail maintenance?
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
Literally a youtuber parks there shit outside in Philly
Lower_Kick268@reddit
And gets it stolen, that's what usually happens
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
I had a Cabo bike as a teenager. We used to rent a campsite and we’d carry everything on the cargo bike. Someone would set up camp and I’d collect drift wood on the beach to make a campfire including dirt trail mountain biking.
I daily drive an nd miata for years and it’s enough for most of my trips and my cargo bike holds more.
PRSArchon@reddit
In the netherlands most people do all of those activities by bike or on foot.
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
It's pretty hilarious that there are people who can't even comprehend this....
https://youtu.be/kYHTzqHIngk
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
I have done so in the past. What's funny is the njb guy has a 3 minute video for people who have never lived in a place where this is the norm and cant grasp it.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
It means you bum rides off your friends that have cars, or you are retired
armchairracer@reddit
A) not being car dependent would mean not needing to bum rides. B) the point isn't to not own a car at all, it's to not need a car every day.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
That also means you gotta live somewhere that involves taking public transit everyday, ew. Tried it once up in NYC, I'll pass, watched a crackhead yell at her BF on the phone for 25 minutes, I'll pass on hearing that everyday
Even-Promotion-4024@reddit
Look, having been lucky enough to live in multiple countries, I will say what you're describing is a pretty US specific issue in my experience. Behavior like that absolutely doesn't fly in East Asia, and the London Underground isn't far behind. Now SEPTA in Philly on the other hand...
US public transit is generally unpleasant and I personally have no desire to depend on it regularly (although I do love being able to walk places), but it doesn't have to be this way
Frlataway@reddit
That's because the US has zero social safety nets for the mentally ill, addicts and homeless population. Other countries have their poor but we double whammy it with zero medical support too.
armchairracer@reddit
To each their own, I love visiting dense walkable cities with good public transit.
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
In his defense it’s so cheap to live in New York because no one wants to live there.
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
No one ever goes there anymore. It's too busy.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
I'm a good driver, I'm not scared of driving anywhere. I've already been to the only really good walkable cities in the US anyways, live near Philly and been to NYC already.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
You could be max verstappen and theres still 100 million /idiotsincars looking to kill you
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Yeah that's why I'm a defensive driver and don't speed, speed kills, aggressive driving causes accidents, you can protect yourself by doing neither of that
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
I live in a city and my house was made before the word sprawl existed renting a car or taking a taxi occationaly is not bumming rides.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Tell us youve only ever lived in a suburb without telling us...
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Never lived in a suburb lol, always lived rural, my town has 1800 people in it and probably 10x the animals.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Just an FYI for the sake of history, rural areas used to be the most car free areas. The modern rural interpretation of "rural" is kind of an abomination of what it was 100 years ago due to sprawl.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
I live like 10 minutes from Walmart and my house was built before the word "sprawl" referred to housing. Just an FYI they used to have a stable in the backyard of my house to take a horse into town before cars were the norm.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
In New Jersey? Lol you dont k kw how hard that makes me laugh
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Yeah, South Jersey is not North Jersey, down here we have more livestock than people.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Hahahahahaa bud you had me at the last comment. No need to keep the joke going.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Just Google photos of Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Cape May, Atlantic, or Burlington counties and tell me it's not rural.
Potential-Ant-6320@reddit
I love cars but I was much happier when I had a 35 mile a day Staten Island to Upper east side bike commute. A lot of people who live car free pay more for rent to have a better location and have a relatively short commute in the city center.
JoyRydr@reddit
The community featured in the article is right next to a light rail stop and assuming I didn't Google the wrong line, it connects them to both downtown, the airport as well as another light rail line so the residents can very well be comprised of standard suburbanites that commute to a downtown office. Granted I'm just making inferences and have no real idea about how people commute in the Phoenix metro.
IrlArizonaBoi@reddit
The public transportation in Phoenix is genuinely trash. Taking the light rail turns a 20m drive into an hour travel time. I wish it was better thought out.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
We spend trillions literally on one more lane broism treating it as a legitimate science and wonder why we dont have safe high-quality local roads or transit.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
That's how Septa in Philly is, just adds more steps trying to go anywhere, and it's always got delays and derailments and bullshit. Jumping through way more hoops to do the same thing
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Comments like this convince me some people have only ever lived in suburbs.
armchairracer@reddit
I've always lived rural, the biggest town I've ever lived in was 80k when I was in college and even there the public transit was pretty terrible. My line of work also has me usually working in industrial areas which even in the bigger cities in my state seem especially poorly served by public transit.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
I get that this isnt exactly in pop culture knowledge, but rural areas do have transit programs and more than 1000 rural public transit agencies have faced drastic cuts leading to consequences.
https://t4america.org/2025/11/18/rural-and-red-state-pain-four-notable-impacts-of-trumps-unprecedented-transit-cuts/
3rdreprieve@reddit
Ideally, you would have a lot of job opportunities very close to eachother. I imagine that’s the case for those who commute by rail/bus to, say, New York City, or London.
V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit
I would choose Tokyo if I can.
blchpmnk@reddit
I've always taken public transit or walked to work. I drove for a few months and it wasn't worth it because I was saving maybe 15 minutes once factoring parking and I was healthier and less stressed when I walked
Bonerchill@reddit
I hate living with ICE vehicles.
Exhaust noise is omnipresent; there are brief periods past midnight where I hear nothing but coyotes and wind but it’s such short respite between blatting Harleys, crackle-tune turbo cars, and flatulent V8s. Even the melody of a Colombo V12 is unwanted when I have a snifter of scotch in one hand and am looking out over the valley while thinking about life.
It may be hustle and bustle and the lifeblood of our economy, hell, I drive cars and trucks for a living, but I’ll be damned if it makes us feel closer to one another.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Theres some pretty cool studies looking at how people wont stand for shit, but if you change it to a similar thing about cars, they'll think its just fine. Right now people are wigging out about noise pollution from data centers, but will also claim high speed traffication noise is just normal part of life when both cause neurodegenerative diseases.
Bonerchill@reddit
No one in the US believes noise is a factor in premature death, while it’s shown to significantly contribute to almost 11,000 deaths per year in the EU.
As someone who frequently drives 2,000+ mile trips, works off a busy road and lives off a busy road, it is unbelievably rare for me to experience silence and I think it’s killing me. My wife and I are moving and one of the requirements for our new place is the ability to experience silence for extended periods.
We’ll likely be unable to find a place that works and is quiet, so I’ll just keep on with my plan to just walk into the wilderness at 60 and never come back.
KeyboardGunner@reddit
The title is very misleading. This is a small neighborhood, not a town.
armageddonwithit@reddit
Worse still: it's an apartment complex. They don't even sell condos!
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Believe it or not that used to be called a town
phxbimmer@reddit
I used to live in Tempe, and while Culdesac is a cool premise, it's a tiny little car-free housing development that's right in the middle of a ginormous car-dependent hellhole with brutally hot summers and very little shade. I'd much rather be car-free in a major city with real public transit like NYC, DC, Boston, SF, etc.
Frlataway@reddit
Well you have to start somewhere... If this setup becomes desirable, more will pop up or it will expand. That's a good thing. Urban redesign takes a very long time.
orangebikini@reddit
As a European the quotes from the residents from that community are just too funny. Being in awe of the most basic shit.
Still, a pretty cool development. Don't know if this really belongs on r/cars though. Or maybe it does.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
People here literally don't get how grocery shopping withkut a car is possible. Those are top comments above lol.
Frlataway@reddit
American exceptionalism at it finest! "But how can I haul my $500 weekly costco run!? What about home depot!? Public transit could never work here!"
People are so propagandized and have never personally experienced a good public transit system that they just cannot and will not wrap their minds around the possibility that it could make their life better.
I love cars but being mandated to drive one every day and being stuck in one for hours turns my hobby into an obligation, and there's nothing I need less in life than another obligation.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Reading some of these suburban brained comments is like listening to 40 yr old virgin try to talk about tits. Lol
Sixteen-Cylinders@reddit (OP)
It’s a story related to cars and the impact on U.S. culture and infrastructure. Pretty relevant IMO. Mods can remove if they choose. Happy Earth Day regardless folks.
orangebikini@reddit
I get that, and it's fair enough. It's an interesting topic, and I personally think the US would benefit from more non-car centric infrastructure, that's for sure. Easy for me to criticise, I know.
But it's pretty loosely related to cars. It's related to cars like a new tram line or a metro stop being built is related to cars. This is a car enthusiast sub, or at least it claims to be. Doesn't really feel relevant to that.
Drum_Eatenton@reddit
Probably not a great sub to post this in
strangway@reddit
We aren’t all knuckle-dragging meatheads. I’m interested in city design.
needmoresynths@reddit
Nah I'm a big car guy but I'd love to not be car-dependent. Would be awesome to have a sick project car that gets trash gas mileage instead of a car that needs to be boring and running all of the time to get to work and stuff.
piddydb@reddit
I actually agree with you on the hope that things would be less car dependent, have more cities/neighborhoods where things are walkable to one another and more pedestrian and public transit access available, I just take exception to when it’s specifically excluding cars like the title implies here. I would ideally like people to have communities with clear transportation options: if they want to walk, they can walk; if they want to drive, they can drive; if they want to take public transit they can. I know some areas that this is straight up impossible to have, but I also know there are many communities that could have these choices but unnecessarily regulate to reduce it by over zoning neighborhoods, by refusing to invest in pedestrian infrastructure, or by specifically designing neighborhoods to be inconvenient to driving.
MRDR1NL@reddit
I live in a European city. Cars are allowed, but with parking and one way roads cycling is often faster. I drve a poor gas mileage car, but I only really use my car to leave the city. I commute by bicycle or on foot.
Drum_Eatenton@reddit
I don’t have a problem with your views either way, just saying this sub will downvote something like this regardless of intent.
BruceBaller@reddit
Yeah I mean I like it but doesn't really seem to fit the nature of this sub...
Sixteen-Cylinders@reddit (OP)
This sub doesn’t like anything g that isn’t a brown used from the factory wagon with a manual and crank windows.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Not sure how long youve been here but that used to be funny because it was a bit true. But now and for quote a while this place is a rav4 and f150 apologist sub. Major shift happened almost a decade ago
samcuu@reddit
I disagree. There's still a new "DAE wagon? SUV sux!!1!!1" thread every couple of hour.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Not really. The circle jerk is abkut the 10 yr out of date circlejerk.
Mention trucks being too big and this sub turns into /trucklodytes
Drum_Eatenton@reddit
Miata wagon
Shmokesshweed@reddit
🤣
_jagwaz@reddit
Plenty of us car enthusiasts support making our country less reliant on cars. It’s a shame a certain subreddit tarnishes the entire movement though.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
This subreddit does that.
strongmanass@reddit
r/fuckcars
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
Sounds like you don't like some facts.
Spud_Rancher@reddit
I like driving and hate sitting in traffic, if I can avoid traffic with public transit I would.
Spicywolff@reddit
One thing I miss about Covid was the roads were empty. My commute to the hospital was so enjoyable
RousingRabble@reddit
Less traffic also means driving is more enjoyable.
pug_walker@reddit
Maybe r/fuckcars?
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Sounds terrible, I will gladly take a town with cars
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Sounds like you only know what you only know.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
You're right, I've never lived in a city, and I'm happy I never had to, cities suck
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Sounds terrible. Thats making the ignorance make more sense though. Especially when learning its adament.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Sounds terrible to live somewhere you can hear your neighbors banging in the room above you or seeing hobos poop on the sidewalk. Instead all I have to deal with is the occasional drop off housecat or bonfire with too much music, it's awesome living in a small neighborhood in a rural area.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Bud youre just making shit up abkut stuff you know nothing about. Its like 40 yr old Virgin talking about tits. Lol
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Im not lol, always some kind of bullshit going on everytime i go to Philly. City stinks too, i dont know how you guys can live with that 24/7, smells like garbage and sewage gas, in some places that smell is nauseating during the summer. Also we get a drop off cat or litter of cats usually once every few months, my own cat was a drop off in 2016, the dumbasses that dropped him off lived over the bridge in PA and had him microchipped, then got charged for abandoning the animal and ended up having to pay thousands in fines for it.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
40 yr old virgin trying to talk about tits.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
I'm not 40 not talking about tits
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
You're like those Christians who've never cracked the bible but listen to what talk news radio hosts tell you what's in the bible, and you just end up reciting Pulp Fiction.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Huh
medicallymiddleevil@reddit
One thing that's tough for people to recognize is that driving everywhere is extremely high cost, for everything.
We see it as the "default" so when we drive along a swooping interchange with lofty support beams all perfectly engineered it's just "whatever" but that is actually an absurdly sophisticated and expensive feat of engineering. In the US our "cathedrals", our great public works, are interchanges and bridges and they're everywhere.
And they're far too expensive. Without spending dramatically more in the US our infrastructure is going to start crumbling, and even with today's spending we're neglecting all sorts of other infrastructure to pay for roads instead. Rural towns will literally be "blessed" with replacement interchanges that are the town's entire annual budget for a decade plus, all while their parks, schools, sidewalks, and everything else crumbles. Our built environment is poor in large part because we try to do one thing very well and now even that is unsustainable.
Driving also acts as a toll on everything. Driving costs about $0.70 a mile, which is a "hidden" expense for every single profession. When you're building a house every person on the job site pays that cost in their commute, which ultimately gets passed onto the final price of the home. In metros without density the added commute distance drives up costs of every profession, and in metros with density the added time drives up costs of every profession.
We're an extremely high-cost high-income society, which means our margins are vulnerable. If our economy dips or our income falters our fixed high costs are harder to manage. We're seeing that struggle begin now as the "fixed" cost of participating in the job market is exploding as car payments, insurance, and gas all rise. We've been lucky enough to have such a powerful economy that has rarely caught up to us, but it is a dangerous situation long-term for the US.
Rawalmond73@reddit
That sounds dreamy as a cyclist.
mastawyrm@reddit
I don't even check my mail without a car or atv ride. That town is smaller than my backyard.
wiscotangofoxtreat@reddit
Sounds sustainable
IamLeven@reddit
This year I've been trying to drive as little as possible and its fantastic. I bought a $50 bike off facebook marketplace and use that to go to places. Often I'm finding it doesn't take much longer than driving. We spend so much time sitting on lights it doesn't matter if you get to the light at 30mph or 15 mph it still turns green at the same time.
mgobla@reddit
This is a subreddit about CARS...
costafilh0@reddit
Feels like communism.
Blackraider700@reddit
I love cars but I do wish the us invested more in clean/safe public transportation
xlb250@reddit
No thanks I love my suburban utopia
Ok_Combination_4482@reddit
Must be hell. So Glad i dont have to love in these places.