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What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? If you require large amounts of parking everywhere and commensurately large road

What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? If you require large amounts of parking everywhere and commensurately large roads, everything ends up so spread out that car based transportation seems like a necessity. It’s a self perpetuating cycle. If you don’t require so much land to be dedicated to cars you can build things denser and lower or even remove the need for personal cars. I think one car per household is fine for townhomes assuming most are 2-3 bedrooms. A lot of families only need one car.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? Any part of the US where a street of townhomes would be more dense than the existing status quo is not one of these areas.
- kgermino 5y ago
  In my city (Milwaukee Wi) there are plenty of areas with single family houses, less than 10 units/acre with 0-1 cars per house. It’s not that uncommon in the US, especially in poorer areas
mattmcknight 5y ago
It's just not like that in reality. There is a townhouse neighborhood near me with 1.25 spots per house, and it is a disaster. A lot of places are occupied by people with roomates, not families. It's the kind of place where most people need a car for their job- work trucks abound, people drive uber or doordash, etc. Not everyone takes a laptop to the office every day. The roads are nearly impassable, people park 1km away. I knew someone trying to run a small business out of their home there (piano lessons) but there was nowhere for customers to park. There is bus service there, but they reduced the number of routes due to insufficient usage.
- opportune 5y ago
  Yeah, there is for sure a chicken-egg problem here. If the existing public transportation isn’t good then people will just not have enough parking. If everything is still spread apart, or there aren’t sidewalks or biking infrastructure, there won’t be walking or biking to the office or work site. Although I will say, living in a neighborhood with very little parking, I am sure people who insist on owning a car anyway will think it’s a disaster too. But I love it because everything is close by and I can get around through a variety of non-car methods. But to get to that point takes time.
klhutchins 5y ago
This really depends on too many variables of the surrounding area. There are places this could work, but I would argue there are more areas where this would not.
iso1210 5y ago
> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? That's in very dense urban cities. Given the numbers in question (low density 10 houses/acre) that's not going to be the case.
chrismcb 5y ago
> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? Sure, if they live near public transportation. I would vote down a dense housing development of it didn't have access to public transportation

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? Any part of the US where a street of townhomes would be more dense than the existing status quo is not one of these areas.

kgermino 5y ago
In my city (Milwaukee Wi) there are plenty of areas with single family houses, less than 10 units/acre with 0-1 cars per house. It’s not that uncommon in the US, especially in poorer areas

mattmcknight 5y ago

It's just not like that in reality. There is a townhouse neighborhood near me with 1.25 spots per house, and it is a disaster. A lot of places are occupied by people with roomates, not families. It's the kind of place where most people need a car for their job- work trucks abound, people drive uber or doordash, etc. Not everyone takes a laptop to the office every day. The roads are nearly impassable, people park 1km away. I knew someone trying to run a small business out of their home there (piano lessons) but there was nowhere for customers to park. There is bus service there, but they reduced the number of routes due to insufficient usage.

opportune 5y ago
Yeah, there is for sure a chicken-egg problem here. If the existing public transportation isn’t good then people will just not have enough parking. If everything is still spread apart, or there aren’t sidewalks or biking infrastructure, there won’t be walking or biking to the office or work site. Although I will say, living in a neighborhood with very little parking, I am sure people who insist on owning a car anyway will think it’s a disaster too. But I love it because everything is close by and I can get around through a variety of non-car methods. But to get to that point takes time.

klhutchins 5y ago

This really depends on too many variables of the surrounding area. There are places this could work, but I would argue there are more areas where this would not.

iso1210 5y ago

> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? That's in very dense urban cities. Given the numbers in question (low density 10 houses/acre) that's not going to be the case.

chrismcb 5y ago

> What if I told you that in many areas households don’t even need a single car? Sure, if they live near public transportation. I would vote down a dense housing development of it didn't have access to public transportation