It started as a random thought I was going to post to social media while watching this Evan Edinger video. He talks a lot about how car culture is a big reason he would never consider moving back to the US and how “America doesn’t offer” the ability to live car-free.
Evan is from NJ so I know he knows that’s not really true. NYC is certainly an anomaly when it comes to living in the US. It’s far and away the most dense and has the best public transit and bike networks in the entire country. It’s not really a contest.
But there are actually other places. Pretty exclusively these are cities that were developed before 1900 and didn’t destroy their entire city in the name of the automobile. In particular, I have lived in Baltimore for four years now and I found something here I didn’t even realize I had been searching for. In 2021 when I moved here I didn’t really know the words to describe it, I just knew I wanted to be near places.
I lived in various DC suburbs for about a decade, but when I got the opportunity I decided to move to Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood. Even then, though, I became really focused on homes that were close to the neighborhood grocery store. If you had asked me then why I wanted that I’m not sure I could have told you.
After moving here I slowly started to move in larger and larger circles from my house. I walked to the grocery store nearly daily (still do). Why have a freezer full of food when I can use the grocery store as my freezer? I slowly started to visit all of the different bars and restaurants that are within a few blocks of my house. I went on dates and experienced new places I had never seen before; largely without ever stepping foot in a car. Another year passes and I meet the woman who would later become my wife.
If you’re one of my in-laws please skip the next paragraph.
Not long after meeting her she moved to a neighborhood (Upper Fells) where parking was pretty tricky. It’s very near the popular Fells Point neighborhood and finding a spot to put a car can get pretty difficult after 5pm. I started to just walk over to her house (about 20 minutes) when I was going to spend the night and then walk home early in the morning before starting work. I also remember one night (it was a Tuesday!) she texted me asking if I wanted to meet her and her grad school friends at a bar in Highlandtown. I walked over and found her feeding the jukebox quarters after what I soon learned was a pretty lengthy evening of different challenges to which the only allowed answer was “yes.” I fell in love and my circle got larger.
Together we have since explored so much of this city together and there’s still so much to see. Much of it we’ve done on foot or taking the bus. We regularly take the bus from our house on weeknights to go to Orioles games. We can even take the water taxi across the harbor and go see a movie at the American Visionary Art Museum and picnic on the side of Federal Hill.
When I was watching the Evan Edinger video I started to feel like I would never be able to articulate to anyone who has never experienced it what it’s like to live in a place where a car isn’t the default option because it’s not the only option.
Most of my friends and family live in car-dependent places, so anytime I try to tell them about how great it is to live here and do things without a car, the only thing they can ever think of is parking. I feel like I’m about to turn into the Joker at this point anyone cites this as an issue because it’s the only thing a car brain can consider. Also, parking in our neighborhood is fine. On very rare occasions when there are major events taking place nearby parking can become a challenge; but that’s the exact perfect time to go places using a different mode. Leave the car at home and just walk or ride a bike or take the bus or hell, even call a rideshare.
I’m not going to pretend that transit in Maryland’s largest city is perfect. The highest praise I can give it is that it’s serviceable most days. But I can also say that MDOT MTA has made efforts in the short time I have been here to make things better and has proposed significant service improvements over the next 5 years. But we can make the choice to use the system and get where we need to go, even today.
My point is, living here has changed my life. Never again do I want to be forced to drive a car to the grocery store. If me and my wife want to go to dinner, I love that we can walk to dozens of restaurants and I never want to lose that. I have said before that I would be super unhappy if I was forced to move to the suburbs and lose those things and it’s true. I just wish there were a way for me to show so many of the people that I love why I feel that way — even better if I could get them to experience it themselves.