(2009-05-13) German Carless Suburb

Germany has a Suburb called Vau Ban which pushes towards avoiding use of the AutoMobile with an Urban Village design. Vauban, home to 5,500 residents within a rectangular square mile, may be the most advanced experiment in low-car suburban life... In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promoting "CarReduced" communities, and legislators are starting to act, if cautiously. Many experts expect public transport serving suburbs to play a much larger role in a new six-year federal transportation bill (Highway Bill) to be approved this year, Mr. Goldberg said. In previous bills, 80 percent of appropriations have by law gone to highways and only 20 percent to other transport... In California, the Hayward Area Planning Association is developing a Vauban-like community called Quarry Village on the outskirts of Oak Land, accessible without a car to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and to the California State University's campus in Hayward... But the current system is still stacked against the project, he said, noting that mortgage lenders worry about resale value of half-million-dollar homes that have no place for cars, and most Zoning laws in the United States still require two parking spaces per residential unit. Quarry Village has obtained an exception from Hayward... Most residents, like Ms. Walter, have carts that they haul behind bicycles for shopping trips or children's play dates... For trips to stores like IKEA or the ski slopes, families buy cars together or use communal cars rented out by Vauban's Car Sharing club... The original buildings have long since been torn down. The stylish row houses that replaced them are buildings of four or five stories, designed to reduce heat loss and maximize energy efficiency, and trimmed with exotic woods and elaborate balconies; free-standing homes are forbidden.