New Study Details Costs of Sprawl, Shows How Northwest Is Leading A Revolution Toward More Livable Cities

car and the city press release (April 17 1996)

Northwest Environment Watch Alan Durning 206-447-1880 / Donna Morton 206-447-1880

Cities are safer than suburbs. That is the remarkable conclusion of The Car and the City, a new study from Northwest Environment Watch. City dwellers have been migrating to the suburbs for decades, partly from the misguided perception that they will be safer. But car accidents kill more people -- especially young people -- than either guns or drugs, according to the Seattle-based group.  

The Car and the City documents this surprising phenomenon, and many other social, environmental, and economic costs of urban sprawl. But this important book also reviews how some visionary people in the Pacific Northwest are reversing sprawl and revitalizing cities.

Although the Pacific Northwest, like other places, has suffered under the dysfunctional relationship between cars and cities, the region also has a wealth of solutions. The Car and the City shows how people in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver are quietly but radically changing their cities, making the Northwest a laboratory for the reinvention of urban life. These include:

• A system of free busses in downtown Portland, with shelters equipped with television monitors giving up-to-the-minute bus schedules.
• A Vancouver neighborhood that has been transformed from a concrete jungle to a dynamic and livable urban neighborhood.
• Washington's Commute Trip Reduction Law took 120,000 cars off the road every weekday in its first two years of operation.

The Car and the City also proposes innovative solutions to the problems engendered by sprawl, including paying auto insurance and registration fees at the gasoline pump, so those who drive the most miles pay higher premiums. Another proposal is changing lending rules so that people with fewer cars -- and thus fewer expenses -- qualify for larger home mortgages.