Car Free America

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is home to several colleges. The Ohio State University is the largest.
Other area colleges and their locations include: Columbus College of Art and Design (Downtown), Capital University (Bexley) and School of Law (Downtown), Columbus State Community College (Downtown), Otterbein College (Westerville), Ohio Dominican University (East Columbus), Franklin University (Downtown),
Denison University (Granville, OH), and Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, OH).

This city is also home to several neighborhoods that support a car-free lifestyle.
Downtown Columbus is surrounded by mature, adjacent, middle-class neighborhoods that
offer a wide range of retail and professional services.
The Short North, in particular, is a neighborhood that offers virtually everything a person needs
in life within walking distance. The few retail services not available in the Short North, for example, Target,
are a close bus or cab ride away. Read the rest

Columbia, Maryland

Designed as a planned community in the late 1960’s, Columbia is an unincorporated city in Howard County,
located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It is usually considered part of the Baltimore Metropolitan Area.
However, because so many residents work in Washington, D.C., Columbia is sometimes considered an
outlying part of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.

Unlike many suburbs, Columbia was intended as a walking community, consisting of nine villages: each with a village center, and several neighborhoods within each village. Each neighborhood has a neighborhood center with an elementary school, outdoor pool, and (originally) a convenience store.

While later development focused on big-box shopping centers that are primarily car-accessible,
a public transit system—now operated by Howard County and called Howard Transit—makes it possible for Columbia residents without cars to reach these shopping centers. The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) provides excellent commuter service to Washington, D.C. (and limited service to Baltimore).

The hub of Howard Transit buses is the Columbia Mall, which serves as both a regional shopping center and the commercial hub of Columbia’s downtown. Lake Kittamaqundi, across Little Patuxent Parkway from Columbia Mall, has a walking path, the central branch of the Howard County Library, a post office, and several restaurants.

Because of the extensive system of walking and bike paths around Columbia, the community dedication to preserving open space, and the original design of nine villages, Columbia can be a good choice for someone looking for a home in the Baltimore/Washington area who doesn’t want to own a car.

My wife and I lived in Columbia for nearly 30 years. While we owned a car, we walked to the grocery store,
a nearby lake, houses of worship, and even the Columbia Mall. When our car broke down for nearly three
months in 1998, we walked or took transit to nearly any place we wanted to go.
The exceptional commuter bus system makes it easy to work in Washington (and, to a lesser extent, Baltimore) without driving. Read the rest

Binghamton, Broome County New York
Greater Binghamton offers all of the amenities of a large city, but with small town charm.
The layout of cities and villages dotted throughout the County keep areas small enough to get to know your neighbors.

Broome County has a very low crime rate, lots of affordable housing, its own opera company and symphony orchestra, a
cinema showing independent films, a university plus a community college with a continuing education department for
non-traditional students, three hospitals, and churches and synagogues of all denominations..

Binghamton has the fifth oldest operating zoo in the United States, and the largest collection of Hershel (Hand Carved & Painted) antique operating Carousels owned, operated and maintained by local municipalities with free admission to all.

Lovers of nature and the outdoors will appreciate the Broome County park system, a nearby state park with camping sites,
lakes, and lots for RVs, and many walking and biking trails. Sports fans will want to attend games of the local double “A”
New York Mets baseball team, that plays in their own 6,000 seat stadium, and the professional AHL hockey team, that
plays at the 5,000 seat Broome County Arena. Both stadiums are located in the heart of the city of Binghamton.

Resident enjoy the change of seasons ~ gorgeous Fall foliage, fun winter activities, the renewal of spring, and LOTS of
summer fun. Temperatures are generally moderate – not extreme. The scenery is beautiful with rolling hills and river
valleys. There is always something to do with events, concerts, shows and a variety of free activities ~ truly something for everyone.

You don’t need a car to enjoy living here !

Read the rest

Paul Cooley of Sante Fe New Mexico, writes in his blog about how his family transitioned to a Car Free family. This past May they celebrated their 4th year of being Car Free!! Congratulations Paul!! Hear about it in his owns words:

“It’s our fourth carfree anniversary today. I had hoped to write a long essay touching on what we’ve learned in the last four years, but my honeybees are keeping me very busy right now. A few quick comments is all I can manage, then I have to bike off to the hardware store for some more 1 by 10’s to build more beehives.

We did not get rid of the car primarily to save money. However — gas was $1.65 a gallon when we watched our ‘98 Saab pull out of the driveway, which is now a garden, for the last time. During the past four years, we have rented cars twice, most recently to drive to our canoe trip down the Mississippi. Each time, we have been very happy to hand the car back over to the rental agency. I’ve always had the feeling, when I filled up a tank of gas, that I might as well take a handful of cash and put a match to it. I guess I never felt that the service rendered — being propelled along the road without doing anything — equaled the cash required.

It is difficult to categorize many of the changes in our life as either positive or negative. Naturally, I would say I have a high degree of inertia. We did not become the type of family that goes out and bikes great distances every week. We live, generally, very locally. I’m quite happy about that. The coffee shop and restaurant in the shopping center down the street are very good, and they’re right there. There’s regular grocery stores in our neighborhood, one natural food store about ten minutes away by bike, and across the street from that store is Home Depot. It is perhaps a BIG negative that I will patronize a place like Home Depot, that is easy to get to, and relative easy to park my bike at — though they did take away the bike rack, they were required by local law to have — than to the local hardware store Empire Builder, that is a little harder to get to and requires locking up to a chain link fence across the street. I believe in shopping locally. With a little more effort, I could do more of my shopping locally, but I am in the grips of carfree inertia. We even have to force ourselves into the habit of going to the Farmer’s Market. At the end of the summer, the Farmer’s Market gets its permanent home in the redeveloped railyard. In the meantime, it’s been shuffled around. I’m almost like a honeybee; when it gets moved, I act like I have no idea how to find it. Of course, most of those things have more to do with my personality and habits of living than with being carfree. Read the rest