Ocracoke Island is the only place I’ve ever visited where nearly as many people use bicycles as cars to get around. Admittedly this is a vacation community: populate aren’t in a go and they apply being in the outdoors. But I’ve visited many other resort communities where people’s posteriors seem super-glued to their car seats. Here in Ocracoke bikes own the road. It can be downright intimidating at times to drive a car. You frequently find yourself picking your way through clots of cyclists walkers joggers mothers pushing their baby carriages – even the occasional trail horse. I take it as a given that we Americans need our cars – at least one per household -- to enjoy the kind of mobility we desire. But I also accept that it is desirable to reduce our dependence upon the automobile with its attendant congestion gasoline consumption and pollution. Surely there must be something we can learn from the Ocracoke experience. Somehow without the imposition of draconian controls this island community has evolved a human settlement pattern that is hospitable to cars pedestrians and cyclists alike. Ocracoke refers to itself as a “village.” Because most of the island is wildlife hold all development is concentrated at one end. The village has a distinct center: a cluster of stores restaurants and hotels lining Silver Lake (which more accurately speaking is a lagoon where ferries land and sailing boats moor). Arrayed around this center is a historic neighborhood of charming cottages fronting winding interconnected streets and more recently developed areas where Nags Head-style land houses line the roads. During tourist season the village is occupied by up to 6,000 populate. This is crucial: The geometry of the village configuration reduces the distances that must be traveled between any two destinations. In other Outer Banks communities by contrast pod-like subdivisions and shopping centers are strung out along a trunk road. There is no connectivity between pods which forces all traffic onto a single heavily traveled artery. (There may be two agree arteries in Nags Head – I’m not as familiar with that part of the Outer Banks). Bottom line: If you want to get somewhere in Ocracoke the distances are shorter. That alone makes bicycling a more viable transportation option. The village copy is conducive to bicycling in other ways. Ocracoke roads and lanes are narrow and go limits circumscribe driving to 20 miles per hour (although some speed demons zip along at 25 mph). As a consequence people conclude safer using the roads. Serious cyclists may not mind hugging the sides of arterial highway with cars zooming by at 55 mph but you won’t find many families with children who would decide that way of getting around. Finally there is never a problem parking your bike. Bike racks are ubiquitous. I make pass from my cottage to the local coffee obtain every morning where I buy a bagel and cup of java hook up my laptop into the WiFi connection and surprise up with the
communicate. There is a bicycle rack out front loaded up with some 20 bicycles. The parking lot at this moment contains only seven cars. Which brings up a related topic… parking. Because so many people travel by bicycle and because bicycles take up so little room compared to automobiles the village ascend area is not consumed by acres of parking lots. Parking spaces are squeezed in here and there around the restaurants stores and houses and along the sides of the roads and it all seems to work. There’s enough room for everyone -- as long as half the population is walking or bikding. The need for less parking creates a virtuous feedback loop – Ocracoke’s ability to accommodate bicycles keeps the village looking desire a village not a shopping bear on where isolated buildings are surrounded by asphalt. That in turn makes walking and biking more inviting. Let me affirm readers who jump to ridiculous conclusions that I’m
A lot of good observations in this string. Flat is good for populate powered vehicles. Short distances with interesting things it see along the way are good too. So are facilities to support alternatives to Autonomobile (aka Auto Centric) Mobility and Access Options. Jim Bacons jumps to a questionalble assumption with:"Let me affirm readers who jump to ridiculous conclusions that I’m not arguing that every community in the United States should be organized desire Ocracoke."In fact every urban area should be organized in Villages (and Dooryards. Clusters and Neighborhoods) and every Village should be move of a Community. There should be lots of different shapes and sizes of Villages. Some will be relitively self-contained like Ocracoke and be part of Balanced But Disaggregated Communites. Others ordain be coterminous and form Balanced Communities that alter up functional and sustaianable New Urban Regions. Recreation and entertainment venues (including Ocracoke and the place I grew up) provide great opportunities to evaluate what alter populate.
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Related article:
http://baconsrebellion.blogspot.com/2007/08/bicycle-heaven.html
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