We are raised on cars. For many Americans, the idea of riding a public bus or train seems foreign and inconvenient. Car owners who have no experience with public transportation may believe a car is always the necessary method to get from here to there.
Two years ago, I moved to Denver from Chicago, well practiced in public transportation and committed to life without a car. To me, there is independence in the car-free lifestyle. It is freedom from hefty car payments and dealings with insurance companies. It is the freedom to walk any way I want down one-way streets, to cut through fields of untouched snow on the way to the store, to observe the moving city around me without worrying if I am holding up traffic or about to cause an accident.
It is the opportunity to get more exercise and support a cleaner environment.
The year after college, I lived in a suburb of Seoul, South Korea, where public transportation was not just abundant, it also was efficient. Digital postings at stops and stations told me exactly when the next bus or train would arrive. (They arrived often and crowded.)
Few of my peers owned cars in Chicago. We all took the “L” or bus to work or play — always a faster and cheaper alternative to driving.
So when I moved to Denver, I searched for an urban neighborhood that had all necessary conveniences within walking or busing distance. I settled on Uptown, where, unlike other neighborhoods, I could walk to the grocery store, the movie theater, restaurants, cafes, shops, and the bus stop.
In Denver, when I tell people I don’t have a car, I get varied reactions of bewilderment: “You live without a car?” “Isn’t it dangerous?” “Isn’t it inconvenient?” “Doesn’t it take longer?”
To these questions, I ask: Have you experienced the pleasure of reading a novel all the way to work? Do you know the convenience of finishing work on the commute home? Do you know the peace of mind in not worrying about ice and snow? Have you watched the world move from day to night during the 5 o’clock rush while someone else stresses about traffic?
This freedom, however, comes at a cost. Without a car in Denver, it takes longer to go just about anywhere. It takes more planning and more patience. The appeal of owning a car is not lost on me, especially in Colorado, where cars are necessary for trips to the mountains and Sunday rides in the foothills.
Like most American cities, Denver’s adequate but inefficient public transit system will never reach its full potential without more citizens who use it. Denver could lead the country in greener, community-oriented practices that encourage lifestyles where we walk, ride and bus more often.
Denverites, in general, love the environment, are committed to healthy lifestyles and will do anything to be outside. So why does it seem like the number of Denverites who support those ideals is disproportionate to the number who use public transportation?
Denver needs improvements: safer bike routes, more comprehensive light rail, more bus users so routes run more frequently and at a lower cost. The city needs more neighborhoods like Uptown, whose conception begins with, “How can we make this neighborhood as self-sustained as possible?”
The other day, when I got on the No. 10 bus on the way to the Highlands, I found it full of middle-schoolers on a field trip. For many, it must have been their first experience on a bus. I applaud their teachers for exposing them to public transportation. On this trip, the kids no doubt learned where to catch the bus, how to pay their fare and how to act.
We may be raised on cars, but we can learn to move in other ways. The first step, truly, is to try.
Elizabeth Costello of Denver is a writer at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.
