I started thinking about this after reading a story on the increasing number of young people who prefer to not have a car.
Brauer said this generation also is thinking more than any other about the repercussions of driving, both in terms of the environment and our dependence on oil.
“They don’t just wholeheartedly see a car as this cool thing to go get,” he said. “There’s actually some caveats.”
‘I didn’t need it’
McVeigh didn’t make a conscious plan not to drive. After living overseas as a teenager, she went to college in a small town and then moved to bigger cities for graduate school and work.
At first, a car seemed both prohibitively expensive and unnecessary, because she could walk or take public transportation. Then, she just decided she didn’t want one.
“I just kind of came to the realization that I didn’t need it,” she said. McVeigh uses public transportation to get to work and likes that she can spend her commute time reading or grading papers.
McVeigh also likes getting the extra exercise when she chooses to walk to work or to the grocery store, and is happy to be saving money and not adding any more pollution to the planet.
Good public transportation is an economic development tool. When businesses and young professionals are looking for a place to locate, one of the things they'll consider is how easy it is to get around without a car.
Is it easy to walk or ride a bike around town? Is public transportation fast and convenient? Are there connections to high-speed rail? Can I live near where I work? These are questions individuals and companies will ask about Springfield in comparison to other cities.
Right now, the answers don't make us look so good. We don't have the population to support a public transportation system similar to Chicago's. But, we can do much more to make Springfield less auto-dependent compared to cities of a similar size.