This post is meant to bridge the gap between my past car centered content, and my new city/urbanist focused posts. First a little background:
Growing Up
I grew up in an automotive family. My dad and his brothers raced their Chevrolet Vega at various NHRA events around the country. As that wound down, my uncle opened a performance engine shop, C&S Performance. My dad has been the engine assembler there for most of my life. I attended races/car shows most weekends, and we made an annual pilgrimage to Indianapolis for the largest drag race of the year.
I had my license within months of turning 16, and spent much of high school working on my Camaro with my dad. I was a fully fledged car guy until my trip to Germany as I turned 18.
The Trips
My first taste of international public transit, and non car-centric city planning came on my visit to Germany in high school. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. The family I stayed with relied almost exclusively on public transit. My group rode trains, and buses throughout Munich, Bavaria, and neighboring countries. I was amazed at how easy it was to get around.
Upon my return I still enjoyed working on and driving cars, but a shift had started. I no longer saw cars as the ultimate transit mode.
Since then I’ve been able to travel a lot, and I try to experience as many cities as possible. I focus on staying in walk-able neighborhoods and emphasize car-less or car-light travel.
In the last 5 years alone I’ve used public transit and traveled car-less in:
- New York City NY
- Washington DC
- Boston MA
- Miami FL
- Chicago IL
- Denver CO
- Phoenix AZ
- Twin Cities MN
- Nashville TN
- Osaka Japan
- Tokyo Japan
- Munich Germany
- Venice/Verona Italy
- Prague Czechia
- Dublin Ireland
- Frankfurt Germany
- Berlin Germany
- Amsterdam Netherlands
- Copenhagen Denmark
- Playa del Carmen Mexico
The more I saw of the world, the more I knew what I wanted from a city – less cars.
Now
I finally hit an inflection point. While I still enjoy the sport nature of cars, I don’t believe cities should be built around them as the primary mode of transit. Dad has the Corvette now, and I am a strong proponent of public transit, walk-ability, bicycle lanes, and a stark opponent of extra lanes, and free parking. I write my representatives, and push for more infrastructure in these areas.
Going forward, there likely won’t be much more car content. I will try to write about who I am now: a transit rider with too many bikes who believes that streets are for people.