To be fair, I don’t live in the US, but in Germany where development is much more compact, so even ‘suburbs’ are usually cyclable and walkable but even with the massive suburban lots in the US I’d have thought that there are more creative solutions than just making cars run on batteries.

Cars are used a lot here as well, mainly because the transport system makes it easier: it doesn’t have to be that way.

For example, in older suburbs here we have ‘Spielstrassen’ where the speed limit is 7km/h which makes people much safer walking and cycling. If that’s a bit radical, what about reducing the speed limits on streets and making driving routes less direct but allowing pedestrians and cyclists and busses to go through: we already have a technology to allow buses & emergency vehicles to carry a chip that makes barriers open, but cars have to go around. This would discourage car use and make all the streets more livable. Short distances would be by bike, longer distances by bike/electric car and bus/rail.

I’m not against electric cars: my concern is that this will be seen as the only way forward, and other transport options will be laid aside, again, locking people into further car dependency.

That’s a good point. I guess the issue is that then we have to think about how feasible that is. Although it’s great to have city planning in which everything is walkable, what about the people who already live in the suburbs? We totally don’t want to encourage urban sprawl, but the environment isn’t going to be a compelling enough reason for most people to move to the city. Granted, a good infrastructure and not needing to drive might be… But how do we deal with what we already have? It’s like trying to change a tire while the wheels are still spinning–I don’t know if there’s any way to slow down.

Also, interesting to think about… I know someone who’s a community organizer in Harlem, and they recently installed a bike lane on a major road–which seems like an environmental coup, right? But apparently there was a huge outcry because the residents weren’t consulted about the decision to do construction on their street, and they saw the bike lane as a sign of gentrification, which leads to increased rent prices, etc, and that worries them. I’m the Columns Editor at an environmental news site (greenandsave.com) and this particular community organizer is going to be one of my columnists (we haven’t launched the columns section yet) so I don’t want to steal the thunder of letting him explain it himself, but it’s interesting to think about how complicated everything is, compared to how simple it seems. Interesting thoughts–don’t know if you want to discuss this further, but it’s something that really interests me.

Thumbs up for the Pod!