Irvine versus Bristol

Do I live in the wrong culture? I am stuck in a conundrum of wanting to have easy and quick access to goods, yet disagree with the development of our suburban lifestyles. If you were to say tomorrow, no more cars are allowed, my immediate thought would be to applaud! Then the reality would sink in about what I would really be giving up! Living in Irvine I am privileged with more bike accessible path / trail ways than vehicle circulation. Yet all of the public spaces are spaced at intervals beyond an average walk or bike ride. One is required to drive to CVS or the bank, and to reach beyond Irvine? (This goes for 98% of southern California) you better ride a bus if you intend on arriving in a reasonable amount of time. School is about a 70 mile round trip, and thankfully I only have to do this for 3 more weeks, but some people drive that daily year round. What happened to living where you work?

At the beginning of April I visited the United Kingdom, a westernized nation very similar to our own. What I learned was their mentality is completely different, and not just in the capitol of London. In one week I walked more on my brief “holiday” / tour, than I do day to day in one month in Irvine. Most of this sounds obvious, we live in a society dominated by cars. I suppose my biggest shock was a short day trip to Bristol on the west coast to meet an old friend. He told me to walk to his house, only “45” minutes. Wow. I asked a friend of mine to walk over to my house (2 mile round trip) and was told I was crazy.

People actually utilized train service “religiously” to move between activity centers, whether that is a shopping district, or a city, 100 miles apart.

I am really stuck in this challenge of how can we change minds, since that is not the only barrier. The core of our lifestyle is based in cars, and it really irritates me, and I am not just being jealous that I have a Ford Taurus, and everyone else has a Lexus or Pathfinder.

With gas skyrocketing, perhaps some will open their eyes, but most likely not. Unfortunately change does not come quickly. Development of TODs and urban living is slowly arriving, but it will take 100 years to correct and catch-up to the last 50 years of improper zoning and infrastructure development.

As a student and professional in the field of design and policy I hope to come to the table with the tools to speed up a change in mindsets.