Sustainability Through Transportation and Urbanism: Saving the Planet, One Fewer Car Trip at a Time

In my last article  about walkability, I made the claim that our streets are too wide, and that wide streets are inherently bad for walkability because they encourage people to drive too fast and become a massive risk to pedestrians and cyclists alike. Although "fat streets" are something recognized by many transportation professionals ( Pete Buttigieg , for  example), the idea may be hard to conceptualize.  Thankfully, snow gives us the tools we need to put this idea into perspective. I love snow. It's pretty, fun to play in, and sometimes even gets you the day off of school. If you like to snowboard or ski like me, snow is a gift from God that gives you the powder days you dream of. But transportation and new urbanism nerds like me love snow for another reason- they provide direct, visible evidence that our streets are simply too wide.  So, then, let's talk about what we call  sneckdowns . If you're familiar with traffic calming (speed bumps, bollards, rais...

What does it mean for a place to be "walkable"? Put simply, it's the freedom to walk. A walkable place is one where you feel encouraged to walk; one where it is enjoyable to walk; one where it is safe to walk and where it is comfortable to walk; one where you can walk . It's a place where you don't need to drive 20 minutes for every errand you must run.  If this sounds appealing, you're not alone. There is substantial demand for more walkable places. In fact, a study by the Urban Land Institute (ULI, 2015) found that around 50% of people say walkability is a top or high priority when considering where to live. Similarly, 52% of all Americans, and 63% of millennials would like to live in a place where they do not need to use a car very often.  There is something about the freedom to walk that just feels so human. It was, of course, the "original" transportation mode for our species.  Photo by Miquel Fabré on Foter The thing I love about walkability is...

You already know how carpooling to the grocery store is an easy way to reduce transportation emissions , but what about taking it a step further and ditching the car altogether? This is something that often does not even cross the mind of the typical American (myself included)- they say "I live to far away to bike", or "it isn't safe", or wonder how they will carry all of their groceries home without being able to shove them in the trunk. Fortunately for many of us, we live in college communities where the grocery store isn't so far away and we have somewhat decent bike infrastructure. Furthermore, shopping for just one person (as most, if not all college students do) means that you really don't have much stuff to lug around. Through my experiences biking across the state of Ohio, I can say you'd be surprised how easy biking with cargo is, especially when traveling short distances. Today I decided to set out to do what I promised in my carpooling pos...