We Should Be Building Cities for People, Not Cars

Commuting by car ranks as people’s least favorite regular activity.

It makes financial sense for cities to invest in walkability. There is a scarcity of walkable neighborhoods in the US housing market, and this unmet demand is reflected in the prices people are willing to pay for housing in those cities that embrace a pedestrian-friendly model.

Car fatalities have killed far more Americans than all of our wars combined.

Affordable housing would be far more attainable if our infrastructure encouraged walking and alternative forms of transportation. Parking minimums are one example of how car-centric infrastructure works against this goal. A standard parking spot occupies as much square footage as a small studio apartment, and that’s without factoring in the drivewa... See more

A 23 minute driving commute has the same effect on happiness as a 19% reduction in income.

Communities all around the country have begun to to experiment with retrofitting their built environments in other small ways. The changes don’t have to be radical — they can be as small as repainting crosswalks or planting more trees to provide shade from the sun

We still have decades of auto-dependent land use trends to offset, but small shifts in the way our received infrastructure is designed can go a long way to making our neighborhoods more walkable — and in turn healthier, more affordable, and more vibrant.

For every extra 5 minutes Atlanta residents drive each day, they are 3% more likely to be obese.

The American health care crisis is, at its heart, an urban design crisis. To get a sense for the toll our car-centric infrastructure has taken on our physical and mental well-being: