New Digs and Thoughts About Transportation and Community

2022-06-10

We have moved to a new house in a different town much closer to my wife's work. Eliminating her long commute was the main goal of our move but we are really enjoying our new area for more reasons than that. Our new town is smaller, more cohesive and appears to have more of a real community feel than where were before. This is something we've been craving and missing for a while. Something else we're really liking about the area we live is the ways of getting around. Specifically our options for getting places we want to go without getting in a car.

This town is not what I would call great in terms of non-car transportation but it's quite a bit better than where we lived previously and the city government is *slowly* improving things with a whole walk/bike infrastructure plan that is in motion. It is no coincidence I think that this area has better options for not driving a car and also feels more like a community. It is pretty difficult to feel connected to and interact with others in your community while inside a metal cage going 50 mph. Tangent, I remember when it was pretty common for cyclists to refer to automobile drivers as "cagers". This term seems to have faded away for some reason. Let's bring it back! Our front porch and the prevalance of front porches in our neighborhood in combination with walking and biking being more common immediately makes it feel more friendly. We had one neighbor couple in our old neighborhood that were very friendly. Hardly anyone else on our street ever left their house unless it was to get in their car. We have met and socialized with 4 times as many of our neighbors in our new neighborhood in 3 weeks than we did in a year at our old place.

There are multiple factors at play in the change. Our new area is smaller, it has the aforementioned plan in place specifically to improve the alternative modes of transportation infrastruture, and we made the decision to downsize when buying our new house in order to be able to afford to live in the central part of the city close to the majority of places we'll want or need to go. So far I can say we are really happy with our new living situation.

Here we are on Friday and I haven't sat my tush in a car all week and I count that as a huge win! I haven't been just hanging out at home doing nothing either. We've gone to a really nice playground and splash pad. I've gone to pick up breakfast, dinner and coffee by foot and by bike. Yesterday we walked to the monthly food truck rally in the square downtown. I have groceries delivered most of the time but I still need to explore a little more and see if I can find a bike friendly route to the closest grocery store. A few blocks over there is a small neighborhood market that might be a good enough option for small shopping trips. I still need to get over there and check it out for myself. There are more things still yet to discover that are well within walking/biking range including the downtown area that is actually pretty lively and the hub of most community events around here. It's such a nice change of pace from the last couple places we lived. We have lived places more like this in the past and I really missed it.

Another mode of transport that I haven't mentioned yet, trains. Still yet to be seen how practical this will be but we are about a 20 minute walk from an Amtrak station. I plan to give this a try as soon as is feasible. Amtrak routes are pretty limited when compared to places with real passenger rail systems but it's better than nothing. As a family we would like to take weekend trips and possibly longer vacations by train instead of driving or flying. Fingers crossed this works out to be something we can utilize somewhat regularly.

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