New City, New Routine (Part 2 of 2)

When I started spending half of my time in Houston, the following list of questions helped me move beyond its stereotype as the quintessential driving city to identify the options for reducing my dependency on the family car:

1. Where are you now, and where are you going? In an expansive city like Houston, this question is fundamental. If you are considering joining a carpool to commute to and from work, but your office’s location requires a car to attend meetings or go to lunch, a carpool may not work for you. In my case, my home in Houston is too far from my office to consider using alternative transportation for my daily commute. On the other hand, my office is located in Rice Village, a dense, mixed-use retail center. So, once I arrive, I can walk anywhere I need to go.    
2. What modes of transportation are available, convenient, and safe? Houston’s options for alternative transportation are relatively limited, although expanding. 

• Walking is an option in some neighborhoods, but the city is so spread out that it is not viable as a primary mode of transportation.
• The bus system, Metro, is making efforts to court new users through the light rail system. And, a public-private partnership recently launched a free bus route downtown called the Greenlink. However, the overall system continues to suffer from a public perception of inefficiency and inconvenience.
• Houston’s car share options are limited to “by the hour” rental cars and companies like Relay Rides whose members share their personal cars with each other. 
• On the other hand, it offers public access to more electric vehicle charging stations than many U.S. cities.
• The City recently launched a bike share program downtown. But, its scope is so small that it is only convenient for people who live and/or work downtown. 
• All in all, cycling appears to be the best choice in the city core, because it allows longer travel distances than walking, and it is more convenient (and, possibly, safer) than taking the bus. The only down side to cycling is the low percentage of streets with dedicated bike lanes. However, the Houston Bikeway program is slowly enhancing the cycling infrastructure.
3. What kind of transportation are other people using? Whether walking, cycling, or taking the bus, increasing the number of users often results in increased safety—both in terms of reducing car collisions and reducing the risk of crime. 
4. How much time, money, and effort are you willing to invest in an alternative mode of transportation? The answer to this question will vary from city to city and from person to person. Based on my responses to the above questions, my best options for reducing car dependence in Houston include: 
• living and working in areas of town that offer safe options for walking and cycling and a safe link between the two; 
• walking to services and amenities that are close to home and work; 
• cycling during the day to destinations that are slightly farther away; and, 
• using a combination of cycling and the light rail to travel to and from downtown. 

In order to meet these criteria, I would need to move closer into the city core, and I would need regular access to a bike. Neither of these requirements are realistic investments at the moment. So, for the time being, I have limited my attempts to reduce car dependence in Houston to taking advantage of the walkable nature of my office’s location.

In spite of the fact that I haven’t been able to meet my original goal of dramatically reducing car dependency in Houston, these four questions have given me a better understanding of what options are available today—and what might become available in the future. This exercise has also prompted me to start looking more seriously at the cycling infrastructure in Austin to see how it might fit into the mix of transportation options I use in that city.

Try using these questions where you live and travel. And, let me know if they helped you identify new ways of moving around the city, or if they just reaffirmed your initial assumptions. 

Tracking My Trips: July 2012

The results from the second month tracking my daily travel are in.

In July, I spent 10 days in the Baltimore/DC metro area, 10 days in Austin, and 10 days in Houston — three metropolitan areas with very different transportation mixes. I was surprised to see that, in spite of spending 1/3 of the month in Houston (a city that is notoriously difficult to navigate in any form of transportation other than a car), I improved on my trip profile in alternative forms of transportation, dropping from 48% single occupancy car trips in June to 35% in July.

Trip Profile in July:

	Car	Transit	Walk	Other (air, car share, carpool, cycling)
My Trips	35%	18%	36%	11%
U.S. Average	83%	2%	10%	4%

Two longer trips during the month may have artificially increased the overall numbers: a train ride from Baltimore to DC and a roundtrip between Austin and Dallas using Zipcar. 

For example:

• These two trips account for 60% of the carbon emissions I avoided over the course of the month. Using EPA estimates of average passenger car CO₂ emissions, I more than doubled my avoidance of CO₂ from 32,000 grams in June to 82,000 grams in July – roughly equivalent to taking 4 cars off the road for a day.

• On the other hand, these trips were also likely responsible for lowering the average daily health benefits from increasing the number of trips I took using alternative forms of transportation. In spite of the change, I still scraped by with an average of 141 calories burned per day in transportation-related activities (1 calorie above the Surgeon General’s recommendation). And, I averaged the minimum recommendation of physical activity: 30 minutes per day.

• As relatively fast modes of transportation, these two trips may also have helped reduce the difference between my overall monthly average trip time and the baseline (the trip time in a single-occupancy car) from an average of 32 minutes a day in June to 22 minutes a day in July. 

Interestingly, in spite of the high cost of the train ticket and Zipcar reservation, on average I saved $1.36 per day in the cost of gas and mileage in July, a moderate improvement to my revised average savings in June of $1.22 per day.

But, as I experienced in July, there is no such thing as an average month. 

I am learning that location plays a large role in determining trip profile. In August, I am splitting my time between Austin and Houston. We’ll see how that affects my ability to maintain a similar array of cost savings, offset carbon emissions, and health benefits associated with active transportation.

When in Rome…

For those of us who live and work in low-density cities, the car is often seen as the preferred (if not the only) mode of day-to-day transportation. We only consider using other forms of transportation when we are on vacation in cities that are known for their rail and bus systems and their walking culture. What is seen as a method of last resort in our home town becomes a convenience and a luxury when we travel.

During a trip to Baltimore and D.C. a few weeks ago, I realized that, to some degree, my experiment in Austin trying to avoid car trips has a lot in common with some of the more memorable aspects of travel.

For example:

• The most desirable hotels are often located either near sights of interest or close to transportation hubs. In Austin, we chose to live in the center of town, in part, to take advantage of the density of bus lines, restaurants, grocery stores, and shops within walking distance of our apartment.  

• Walking is not just a means of transportation for tourists. It is often the best way to explore new surroundings. In Austin, I have found that I have started replicating my tendency when traveling to take different routes to and from a point of interest so that I can see more of the city. 

• Tourists are always on the alert for people, buildings, gardens, galleries, and meals that pique their interest. We often remember our vacations in detail, because we approach them in the spirit of observation and discovery. In contrast, we may not remember our day-to-day activities in such stark detail. In retrospect, one of the reasons I enjoyed living in Cambridge so much may be the level of observation and spirit of discovery that influenced the choice of transportation (subway, bus, walking) on any given day.

One of the unintended consequences of seeking out alternatives to driving in Austin has been a change in my approach to the daily commute. I have come to see it as a puzzle to be solved, not a collection of streets and highways to be navigated, which has added another layer of experience to my life here. I now start planning how to reach my next destination by wondering, “What new discovery will I make along the way?”

Up Close – surprises along the way

When I drive down the street, I sometimes feel that I am traveling in a bubble. This feeling can be comforting, particularly on a hot summer day in Texas. But, I have found that it reduces my ability to observe and appreciate my surroundings – the way details shift from day to day and season by season.

For example, we moved back to Austin at the end of spring. It seemed that everything was flowering, even in forgotten places like cracks in the sidewalk.

On one of my walks, I realized that a century plant I had passed dozens of times without really noticing it had produced a flower stalk that reached well into the middle branches of its neighboring oak tree.  The exuberance of the plant life was amazing.

And, then, over a period of two to three weeks, almost all of the flowers disappeared; it seemed that we had entered the much-feared summer, which can drag on for six+ months without any rain.

Last week, however, it started raining again. The plants went wild, and it really hit home that Austin is a water-scarce area.

• Plants that had apparently given up for the season burst back into bloom;

• flowers started appearing in unlikely places;

• and, my walks were punctuated with views of plants and animals that are not usually seen in drought-prone Austin.

Over the past week, the temperature crept back above 100. And, the flowers have started retreating again under the influence of the harsh summer sun. But, I now know to keep my eyes open on my walks for the surprisingly dramatic response of some plants and animals to subtle shifts in temperature, humidity, and rainfall.

Nature, Hidden in Plain Sight

I was intrigued by a headline that came out of the “Walking and the Life of the City” Symposium held last week at NYU: “Walking: It’s What You Do Once You’ve Parked Your Car…”

According to presenters at the conference, research has found that we process more information about our surroundings when we walk to reach a destination than when we use other forms of transportation. This makes sense, because pedestrians move at a much slower speed than even cyclists.

However, another discovery I have made since I started this blog is that we discover different surroundings when we walk, particularly in comparison with driving or taking the bus.

A Case in Point

Before moving to Cambridge, MA in 2010, I lived in Central Austin for five years, frequenting the same grocery store that I have returned to now that we have moved back to town. From the street, the shopping center where the grocery store is located looks like a heavily built-up mega-block development, including a hospital, a medical office building, and a number of retail stores in addition to the grocery store.

View of One Entrance to the Development

While the development’s parking lot has more trees than most suburban strip shopping centers, there is no safe way for pedestrians to cross it without walking in the path of cars.

Typical Scene of a Pedestrian Crossing the Parking Lot

A safer design would have designated pedestrian-only pathways, so that shoppers could travel between their cars and the store without worrying about being run over.

Example of a Pedestrian Pathway Crossing a Different Parking Lot in Austin

Before I started walking to the grocery store, I had always reached it from the parking lot. So, I naturally assumed that the entire development was similarly un-pedestrian-friendly.

Imagine my surprise when I accessed it for the first time by walking in from the back and discovered a park hidden in the middle of the mega-block,

 complete with a series of wetlands to capture and clean storm water

and a group of athletes stretching under a massive oak tree.

Closeup of Athletes Stretching in the Shade

Since I discovered the park, my trips to the grocery store have taken on an added dimension. And, in spite of the heat, I prefer to walk there; because, by entering from the parking lot, I now know that I am missing out on an opportunity to spend a few minutes surrounded by nature, a rare occurrence in the middle of the city.

Imagining a New Role for Rooftops in Omaha

I just returned from spending a few days in Omaha, Nebraska attending a conference and visiting a friend (an architect) who lives and works in the revitalized downtown district known as the Old Market.

While I was in town, she hosted a design exercise on her apartment building’s rooftop terrace posing the following problem: How can rooftops play a larger part in encouraging an active, urban lifestyle in cities like Omaha?

Photo Credit: April Rice

View from Rooftop Terrace

Inspired by the fact that the view from the rooftop makes destinations appear closer to each other than from the ground, the designers imagined installing a new way to travel through the city using public pathways connecting one rooftop park or vegetable garden with the next.

Clearly, for the rooftop to play a more active role in urban life, it needs to be seen as accessible from the street level. The High Line park in New York City, which converted an elevated railroad track into a linear park, has worked hard to install visual cues from the street level that entice passersby up to the floating park. One idea in the design exercise envisioned a mechanism to lower rooftop garden plots to the street level so that city restaurants and residents could purchase their vegetables directly from a rooftop farmer.  I saw another attempt to connect the street level with a rooftop terrace on Saturday: painters installed on a rooftop terrace overlooking the Farmer’s Market.

Like the High Line, these painters may represent the beginning of a trend — building density by expanding activity beyond the street level up into buildings and to their rooftops.


POSTSCRIPT
A few notes on how my friend has organized her daily routine to increase transportation flexibility:

• While she owns a car, she uses it mainly for trips to areas of the city too far to ride her bicycle and for longer road trips. 
• She parks a commuter bike at work and a road bike at her apartment. That way, she can cycle directly from her office to her gym or other activities in the afternoons. As a side note, her office also stores one corporate commuter bike to encourage staff to take an active form of transportation to lunch and meetings. 

• But, mostly she walks—back and forth to work (½ mile); to the two small grocery stores within a block or two of her apartment; and, to the restaurants, bars, and shops in the Old Market.

Change of Scene

My journey begins at home. The location of one’s residence is arguably the most significant factor in how easy or difficult it will be to travel around on a day-to-day basis in something other than a car.

When we moved back to Austin, we chose to live in the center of town in large part because the block size and streets were designed at the human scale (as opposed to the car scale). We also looked for a location that was surrounded by amenities within a walkable or bikable distance.

Experts say that most people will walk or bike 10-15 minutes to reach an amenity such as a coffee shop, restaurant, grocery store, etc. Of course, those experts don’t necessarily live in Austin, where the temperature can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit at 6pm on a summer evening. I will address that particular challenge in a future post.

For now, it is enough to compare my old street in Cambridge (left photo below) with my new street in Austin (right).

For a few months while we are settling back in, we are the beneficiaries of a movement in Austin to increase density by allowing garage apartments to be constructed along back streets and alleyways.

From the photo of the alley behind our furnished apartment, you would never know that we live right in the thick of things. And, to add to the feeling of living in the country…

Our landlords keep a chicken coop below our apartment.


















Our apartment is perched among birds and squirrels running through the oak tree canopy.

And, we have traded the noise of the city for birdsong in the mornings and evenings.

 

Our new home is definitely a change from the hustle and bustle of Harvard Square. It remains to be seen whether I will be able to keep the number of car trips I take to a minimum in my new surroundings.