Of the 30 most populous cities in the United States, Baltimore ranks sixth in carlessness, with 31 percent of households getting around without a car, light truck, or SUV. But to be fair, every city in the top five, ranks pretty high in quality of public transportation. So we’re really in a class by ourselves.
Thirty-one percent is only a 1.9-percent increase in non-car homes since 2007, but it’s part of a nationwide trend. According to Michael Siviak, the study’s author, “We now have fewer light-duty vehicles, we drive each of them less, and we consume less fuel than in the past.”
Siviak doesn’t see this as a fluke. He actually believes the data “suggest that motorization in the U.S. might have reached a peak several years ago.”
Me, I knew cars were ultimately just a fad. Back to horses it is!
Glad the top five rank high in public transit quality. We must be the outlier.
Why are we not speaking to what truly separates us from the top 5? We own so few automobiles, because we can’t afford them. This isn’t a city of Yuppies trying to reduce their carbon footprint by living car-free. This is a city were those decisions are coming from a decidedly non-ideological place.