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Car-free small town just sounds weird. If it a small town there isn't much cars to begin with, and people who live there likely need a car to travel to other to

by belorn 4y ago

Car-free small town just sounds weird. If it a small town there isn't much cars to begin with, and people who live there likely need a car to travel to other towns for work or finding shops that have the specific inventory that people need. Living in an small apartment at the city core in a world city is a very different experience. Among other things, those places tend to have subways and people tend to live in quite smaller living space. Unless parking is subsidized, parking costs alone can cost more than rent in a small town, while parking in a small town tend to be free.

andrewmcwatters 4y ago
I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum. There’s not a lot of difference in the feeling of standing around and wanting to go somewhere further than you can walk. It’s really that simple.
slyall 4y ago
If it is a "small town" then the actual town itself is likely to be easy to get around without a car. I looked at a local town of 15,000 people and it's only 4km across. You could bike that in 10-15 minutes. As for getting to the next town it would be common to have a railway station (or bus station) with regular trains every 15/20/30 minutes. Easy enough to ride down to the station, hop on a train to the next town or big city. Finally "Car-free" doesn't usually mean zero cars. Many households would still own them. But it does mean that it is reasonably possible not to need one and certainly not for every journey.
wizofaus 4y ago
"Car-free small town just sounds weird" Almost no significant urban area is going to be totally car free (unless you're one of a handful of towns/cities across the world - often tourist destinations - where it really is basically impossible to use a car, Venice being the archetypical example), but I've been to small towns in various parts of the world where car usage is far far lower than what we're generally accustomed to in much of the developed world. And they're almost all vastly nicer places to visit than those where the infrastructure dedicated to high-speed automobile travel dwarfs everything else. I imagine those that live there are those that have made peace with a limited-car-usage existence. Some of them aren't even especially dense - it's just a lifestyle choice to make shorter/slower trips mostly (on foot, or by bicycle etc.), and reserve the car for the occasional longer trip into a bigger town for whatever can't be obtained locally.

by belorn 4y ago

andrewmcwatters 4y ago

I’ve seen both ends of the spectrum. There’s not a lot of difference in the feeling of standing around and wanting to go somewhere further than you can walk. It’s really that simple.

slyall 4y ago

If it is a "small town" then the actual town itself is likely to be easy to get around without a car. I looked at a local town of 15,000 people and it's only 4km across. You could bike that in 10-15 minutes. As for getting to the next town it would be common to have a railway station (or bus station) with regular trains every 15/20/30 minutes. Easy enough to ride down to the station, hop on a train to the next town or big city. Finally "Car-free" doesn't usually mean zero cars. Many households would still own them. But it does mean that it is reasonably possible not to need one and certainly not for every journey.

wizofaus 4y ago

"Car-free small town just sounds weird" Almost no significant urban area is going to be totally car free (unless you're one of a handful of towns/cities across the world - often tourist destinations - where it really is basically impossible to use a car, Venice being the archetypical example), but I've been to small towns in various parts of the world where car usage is far far lower than what we're generally accustomed to in much of the developed world. And they're almost all vastly nicer places to visit than those where the infrastructure dedicated to high-speed automobile travel dwarfs everything else. I imagine those that live there are those that have made peace with a limited-car-usage existence. Some of them aren't even especially dense - it's just a lifestyle choice to make shorter/slower trips mostly (on foot, or by bicycle etc.), and reserve the car for the occasional longer trip into a bigger town for whatever can't be obtained locally.