Goodyear, Sarah; Gordon, Doug; and Naparstek, Aaron. Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile. Penguin Random House, 2025, xix + 282 pp.
Like every American younger than 80 years of age, I have lived all my life with cars. When I was a mere tot, my mom used to take my sister and me for rides around town after lunch. Later, a car became my preferred way of getting to school, and once I got my drivers' license, a ready and able way to get any place.
In a country where most adults drive to get almost everywhere, our towns have been designed around making driving convenient and parking readily accessible. It's how our world has looked since before we were born, and we've heard its attributes celebrated in advertising and entertainment media. Only with effort can the substantial social costs of all these cars and all this driving become apparent, and it takes even more effort to imagine a different way of designing places.
Life After Cars is a handy survey of all those social costs of driving. I have long been a fan of The War on Cars, a slightly edgy but erudite podcast out of New York City that began in 2018 as a three-way collaboration between journalist-activists Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, and Aaron Naparstek. I don't remember how I found out about it, but it can't have been too long after the podcast began. Somewhere on the road to 160 episodes, Naparstek, who also founded the website Streetsblog, withdrew from the podcast, though he is listed as a co-author of the book.
The title of the book is overstated, of course, even though it is not as contentious as the (ironically intended) title of the podcast. Motor vehicles are here to stay. What the authors actually seek is "[a] world where those who truly need to use cars and trucks--workers delivering heavy loads, residents of rural areas, some people with mobility disabilities--can do so without competing for space and resources with people whose use of personal motor vehicles is unnecessary, wasteful, and inefficient," and walking, public transit and cycling are accepted as part of the mobility mix (pp. 225-226).
The social costs of motor vehicles are mostly explored across five chapters in Part II, "How Cars Ruin Everything." Cars make force children to choose between their personal safety and exploring their world (ch. 3); cause a host of environmental, noise, and other public health problems (ch. 4); kill more and more people each year (ch. 5); create social isolation and all the problems attendant to it, not to mention making enemies of our fellow drivers (ch. 6); and create extra burdens for people who are poor, physically handicapped, or otherwise socially marginalized (ch. 7). A lot of these phenomena are explored in more detail elsewhere--they cite a lot of recently published books, many of whose authors they've had on their podcast--but rarely are they presented in one place in such a convenient way.
Are these social costs of driving "worth it?" Have we as a society, somewhere along the line, collective decided that some collateral damage was acceptable given the benefits car provide us? The authors argue otherwise in Part I, "How We Got Here." They spend a lot of Chapter 1 in the pre-World War II era, when cars had to fight for space on streets with pedestrians, streetcars, and so forth. They credit cars' ultimate victories, on the streets and in the halls of government, to powerful and ruthless business interests. Today, with fewer and fewer people around who remember a non-autocentric world, it's easy to see cyclists and other advocates of transportation alternatives as threats, because whatever our ideals, we have to get to work in the world cars have made.
The authors try to end on a hopeful note in Part III, "How We Get Free," although they frequently revert back to Part II world, as in their critique of city-supplied free parking (pp. 162-172). They hail academic studies of the effects of cars, and while noting the difficulties officials have faced even where (Ghent, Paris, e.g.) some space has been reclaimed, argue that politicians can look past the loud objectors to a quieter supportive majority; citizens can make themselves heard; and people in some cases can be proactive, as with tactical urbanism (pp, 205-214).
They have faith, backed up by some experience, that once we are able to provide space for alternatives to cars, people will enjoy and defend it. The trick is overcoming the fears of chaos that are easy to gin up.
It's a beautiful world, this one. A quieter, greener world that is more sustainable both environmentally and economically. It's also a happier world, where people are more likely to let their children roam free, to know and trust their neighbors, or to have spontaneous interactions with friends they bump into on a sidewalk. This is what life after cars could look like. (226)
I'm not sure I share their optimism, but they do lay out the choice urgently before us. The fantasy world of SUV commercials, in which we zip confidently through empty city streets or about the scenic wilderness, is just that--a fantasy. The reality, however, of traffic-choked suburban stroads was constructed to serve those fantasies as well as the economic needs of auto manufacturers. Reclaiming our streets will be strenuous, even if everyone reads this book, just because of how our towns have built those streets for the last 80 years.
Promotional sticker is appropriate for guitar case placement
The Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission had a long discussion about proposed large-scale data centers at their Monday meeting, led by Planning and Development director Charlie Nichols. They are anticipating a formal ordinance at their November 17 meeting.
Increasing use of computerized data, particularly with the rise of artificial intelligence operations, has resulted in the burgeoning construction of "hyperscale" data centers nationwide. Linn County, Iowa, is getting into the game, with two planned for unincorporated areas, to be operated by Google and QTS. These were approved "by right," because the historically small scale of data centers led them to be considered a normal industrial use.
Linn County is discussing an ordinance related to future data centers (Nieland 2025), and has requested bids on a study of water impact, which will be paid for by Google. Meanwhile, local officials are bragging on the size of the investments Google and QTS are making in their data centers. But does that signify in any way to the average metro resident?
So quickly has the data center phenomenon taken hold that there aren't really good data on their impacts. Several Minnesota groups have raised questions about the effect data centers in that state are having on water supplies and rates (Meyer 2025). Rosemount, Minnesota, on the edge of the Twin Cities metro area, is seeing construction of a hyperscale data center, and Streets.MN lists six other projects at various stages. Dr. Carrie Ferguson of the nonprofit Freshwater told Streets.MN: "We don't understand the total water footprint at all. There is opacity and nondisclosure all along the way." Cathy Johnson, chair of a citizen group in Farmington, south of Rosemount, called Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, told of the difficulty in getting information from the developer of the data center in that town: "The coalition learned that water demands for the proposed data center campus would require 2.93 million gallons per day, according to the agreement the city signed with Tract in December 2024; normally the city's total daily consumption is 2.3 million gallons a day. (All quotes from Meyer 2025; italics and bolding are mine.)
Other communities are finding their electric bills shooting upward: Watchdog groups like AEP Ohio attributed hikes of $27 per month to the average Columbus family to the energy demands of area data centers (Whoriskey 2025). Abe Silverman, who studies energy markets at Johns Hopkins University, told The Washington Post: "We are seeing every region of the country experience really significant data center load growth. It's putting enormous upward pressure on prices, both for transmission and for generation." Power demands of data centers will rise sharply in the next few years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy cited by Nichols.
This year, incoming Washington governor Bob Ferguson created a task force to study the environmental and economic impacts of data centers, after 87 centers were built in the state, often by companies who were awarded massive tax advantages (Ramadan and Brownstone 2025). The task force, which has yet to make its report, was created after a series of articles published by the Seattle Times and ProPublica suggested the tax breaks were buying less job creation and more energy use than had been sold to state officials (cf. Ramadan and Brownstone 2024).
Photographer Steven Voss (2025) took pictures of data centers in Northern Virginia, which he calls "the world's internet hub" processing maybe 70 percent of global data. Almost half of the state's 600 data centers are located in two unincorporated communities, Ashburn and Sterling, close by Dulles International Airport. He depicts the centers' enormous land use, light pollution, and noise. (Nichols of Linn County points out that part of Virginia is "much more built out" than the corners of Linn County where hyperscale data centers are going. Google, for one, has proposed building a data center near Palo.)
Linn County Planning and Development director Charlie Nichols addresses Planning and Zoning Commission October 20 (screen capture from county-provided video)
The experience with data centers illustrate our vulnerability to market forces: when a new, powerful player(s) enters the market for, say, water or electricity, ordinary users with ordinary market power get priced out as higher demand jacks up the equilibrium ("market") price for that good. Other effects are negative externalities, including the environmental impacts of higher resource use. If hyperscale data centers increase their electricity consumption by 22 percent--what's projected for 2025, cf. Robinson 2025)--that's not going to be easy for either households or the natural world to absorb.
As you can see, I'm ambivalent about the sudden rise of data centers, and by the sudden rise in use of artificial intelligence that causes it. Investment in data centers seems a poor substitute for sustainable economic development, even as the big-win-fixated governments shower them with tax breaks. The risks are spread among all of us, while the benefits are concentrated at the top. As Mary G. (2025), who shepherds the coffeeneuring movement over at Chasing Mailboxes, said after an AI incursion that she's "learned that tech companies fervently believe that AI is going to make them rich and that our data will feed their money-making machine. It's one of the many reasons I remain mixed about using Facebook, while some of me has still found that it can be a helpful tool for some things."
I wish I could be more hopeful that we can have data without scorching the Earth. I'm encouraged by local protests like those folks in Minnesota, and in Indianapolis, and elsewhere, but I'm not naive about the ability of large corporations to snow revenue-starved localities.
"Large Language Muddle," n + 1 51 [Have we considered why we're building all these data centers?]
Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Kuhaneetha Bai Kalaicelvan, "Data Centre Investments Bad Deals," Challenging Development, 28 October 2025 [Malaysian economist summarizes the case against them]
Coffeeneuring is back for its 15th year, and I'm back for my second year. This is a great way to celebrate cycling and small businesses (as well as natural spaces, which feature in some coffeeneuring projects but not this one). Last year, my rides-to-fall-drinks occurred on days with high temperatures between 55 and 84 degrees, and as the weather turns colder with occasional rain, I could use some motivation wherever I can find it. The rules (Mary G 2025) call for seven rides of at least two miles round trip, to six different places, between October 11 and November 24, with no more than two per week. With so many coffee places in the core of Cedar Rapids, these rules pose no difficulty. Outside of the core, though, chains predominate--not a problem for the rules, but I'd prefer to keep it local. Given the length of some of the rides others reported on the Coffeeneurs Facebook page last year, I feel challenged to get out of town some in 2025.
Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Cedar Rapids under cloudy skies
Today was cloudy and chilly. I rode, mostly on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, to suburban Hiawatha. To give myself an extra mile, and to avoid a complicated intersection at Center Point and Boyson, I stayed on the trail as far as Tower Terrace Road before riding back through the factories to Stillwater.
Cedar Valley Nature Trail splits off from Center Point Road
That might have been unwise; I only had to be on Tower Terrace for about 0.1 mile, but it's a two-lane high speed road with gravel shoulders. Fortunately, no cars appeared as I panic-pedaled.
Stillwater has no bike rack, despite its proximity to the trail--maybe I'm the first person ever to cycle here!--but I did find fellow blogger Robert Manson as well as a lot of Johnny Cash references in the decor, and free refills. Free or cheap refills are everywhere in eastern Iowa, but not in "real" cities... I'm guessing the rental prices (which are comparatively low here) determine this.
North window at Stillwater Coffee
While enjoying my coffee and apple muffin, I watched the biweekly Cities for Everyone webinar. This week Gil Penalosa hosted the legendary Ellen Dunham-Jones. She talked about the need through policy to "disrupt auto dependence" in order to meet the many challenges of aging suburban areas. A lot of her examples were from high-demand areas (Atlanta, Austin, Bethesda, Denver, e.g.); I'm glad she also talked specifically about areas without change-forcing levels of demand, because that's where we are here. I imagine retrofit is a tough sell anywhere, though, as witness Addison Del Maestro's post today quoting someone from Vienna, Virginia, worried about how increasing population through denser development would disrupt basic aspects of daily life like grocery shopping.
Blairs Ferry and Center Point Roads, Cedar Rapids: One of several complicated intersections on the CVNT
While I was inside Stillwater, we got a brief rain shower outside. It was over before the webinar was, but my ride home made my butt look wet.
2. Thursday, October 16 (Sunny, 75F)
Coffee at:Dash Coffee Roasters,120 3rd Avenue SW [round trip 4.6 miles + 0.5 miles swimming]
bike, mural, and front window at Dash Coffee Roasters (this mural is across the alley from the Lucille Ball one pictured last year)
Part of the fun of coffeeneuring is following the exploits of others on social media. Several people were out before dawn this morning, and took lovely pictures of shops' lights in the darkness. Several people are doing themed coffeeneuring, and some of their themes are quite ambitious: one person is creating a haiku out of coffee stops, another is doing all Middle Eastern coffee shops (in the south suburbs of Chicago!), and another is devoting each stop to a color of the spectrum (today was "red").
Consider the curve wrecked, folks. I am not going to match that level of creativity. It occurred to me, though, that after seeing Bob Manson at Stillwater Tuesday, and meeting Bob Untiedt at Dash this afternoon, that I was on my way to a "Bob" theme. I don't know how long I can sustain this, but if your name is Bob and you like coffee and are near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, please message me!
Today began with showers that lasted longer than expected, but by 11:00 a.m., out came the sun and dried up all the rain. So I had a dry afternoon ride across the river to Dash via the Helen G. Nassif YMCA, and no worries about the possibility of a wet butt theme to my #coffeeneuring2025.
I met my friends Bob and Phillip at Dash to talk about the history of efforts to reactivate Redmond Park. Dash, praise be, is open til 6:00 p.m., which makes them one of two independent coffeehouses in the core that's open past 2:00. I had a double chocolate scone (not pictured) with a one of their pour-over coffee offerings; my unpretentious drip coffee order is not available past 1:00.
my coffee, and some beans for home, under the approving eye of Elton John
On my way home, I saw a car run a red light; a car turn left in front of oncoming traffic; and an SUV parked in the bike lane. Coffeeneuring is a challenge, in more ways than one! But on this lovely afternoon, the weather was not one of those.
Elsewhere, Planetizen reports Austin, Texas, has put their back into building sidewalks and bike infrastructure, which has resulted in sharply reduced street fatalities (Ionescu 2025).
It was windy this morning, but not painfully so, and the traffic was extremely light as is usual on a Sunday morning. I took a somewhat indirect route downtown, and encountered less than five cars on the way.
I met some friends at Lightworks, a coffee shop located behind Benz Beverage Depot on the edge of downtown. They were doing a pretty good business, but we were able to find a table without difficulty, and borrow chairs from the other tables when more people arrived. I had a bag of beignets, one of their specialties, and managed not to cover myself in powdered sugar.
beignets and coffee at Lightworks
My friends discussed city politics, what with local elections coming up in a couple of weeks. Half of us arrived on bicycles, which is a good sign, and I was able to spread the coffeeneuring message. I think I'm still the only person in Cedar Rapids doing it.
I went to Craftd on Tuesday, but it was too chilly and windy to ride
It's been a chilly week, but I could no longer delay ride number 4. What was I going to do, put it off until November? In the Midwest, that is not such a hot idea, if you'll pardon the pun.
Once on my bike, it wasn't so bad. The wind that has brought us this (admittedly seasonable) weather finally had died down, and I wore gloves and a heavy jacket against what was left of it. The autumn leaves are well underway...
view of Loftus apartments from Bottleworks Park, across 3rd Street from Kismet
...and I left late enough that the ride towards downtown wasn't too bad.
My destination was Kismet, a delightful coffee/flower shop that opened in New Bohemia in late 2021. New Bohemia already had a lot of coffee offerings, but none were florists, and Kismet has been prospering fragrantly for four years.
More (but not much more) seating is upstairs, along with more (many more) flowers
The young couple that operates the shop has a young child who makes occasional appearances; whether for that reason or another, it's a particular hotspot for young people with tiny companions. With the Loftus apartment building almost ready for occupancy on the other side of 10th Avenue, they seem about to have a lot of potential customers nearby.
Bike parking at 3rd Street and 10th Avenue SE
Kismet usually doesn't have food available, but when they do, it's memorable. Today's offering: maple scones.
Coffee and scone by the window
However, even the seemingly innocent pleasures of coffeeneuring are fraught with worry. Today's New York Times included a story about a new report by Coffee Watch showing that in Brazil, clearing forests for coffee farming has resulted in drastically declining rainfall (Livni 2025). Coffee Watch director Etelle Higonnet is quoted as saying "The ecologically destructive way we grow coffee is going to result in us not having coffee." I should surely pay more attention to coffee sourcing than I do!
Say it ain't so, Frank!
Week Three
5. Tuesday, October 28 (Cloudy, 51F)
Coffee at:Uptown Coffee, 760 11th St Suite A, Marion, IA [round trip 15 miles]
Uptown welcomes you!
Big thanks to Mary G. and all the folks at Coffeeneuring HQ, because absent this project I would not have ridden today, and I'm glad I did! It was deterrently chilly this morning, but the rain was going to hold off until afternoon, and what was I going to do, wait until November for nice weather? As it turned out, the ride was not bad at all, though I didn't stop for pictures or to check the trail counter. I had broken a sweat by the time I got to Uptown, though my ears were cold. I met two riders on the Lindale Trail into Marion; one had a plexiglass face mask, while the other had a wrap for his head that fit under his helmet. I should at least look into the latter.
Uptown is adjacent to Marion's wonderful Art Alley
Uptown Coffee operates out of the front of a bar in a historic downtown building. It was doing a brisk business today, though mine was the only bicycle parked outside. The multitude included, for the second time in five coffeeneuring efforts, Bob Manson of The Indie Bob Spot. (See ride #1.) For those of you keeping score, this makes three encounters with Bobs in five, though only two unique Bobs. (My son Robbie joined me at Lightworks last weekend, but he goes by Robbie and therefore does not qualify as a Bob.)
My workstation at Uptown. Not pictured: gooey and delicious peach pie bar.
I put in my earpods for the Cities for Everyone webinar (episode #98), my "must see TV" every other Tuesday morning. (See ride #1.) Host Gil Penalosa interviewed Kristian Villadsen, an architect formerly with Jan Gehl's firm, and now co-creative director at BRIQ, also in Copenhagen. He talked about designing communities in ways that make it "easy" for people to make the more sustainable choices, and "We want to create places that invite people to partake" (italics mine). (Villadsen also said: "90 to 95 percent of zoning regulations were written between 1950 and 1970, when, to be honest, we did some of the worst city planning of all time.") My ride to Uptown today was rewarding, but could not be described as "easy, fast, convenient," which would be the ideal.
I left directly after the webinar, and was home well before the rain started. I did stop to record the reading on the trail counter. As I did, a longboarder and a cyclist went by, so I added them to my count.
The tree on my street has more leaves than it did same time last year (see last year's post)
Today is warmer and lovelier than was Tuesday, but after nearly freezing last night my morning ride was chilly. I added a few extra miles by riding through downtown and then along the river by the Mott Building, the southwest side's answer to the Cherry Building. No pictures of my trip, because it was too cold to stop! It was lovely, as witness the tree by my house pictured above, and I stayed warm except for my ears and neck. I really need to get one of those head goiter things.
Grass was soggy with dew: Bottleworks Park between Full Bowl and Kismet
I returned to Kismet--coffeeneuring rules allow one repeat visit per year--for my biweekly coffee with Randy the Wizard. Unlike last week, they did not have maple scones today... no food at all in fact. Happily, Tim Salis was on the job at The Full Bowl a block away, and I scored a couple buckwheat banana muffins.
The Full Bowl, 129 10th Avenue SE
The mums are still vibrant at Kismet.
mums on the steps leading to Kismet's front door
I sat on the second floor at Kismet this week, which almost qualifies as a new place, but probably doesn't.
My coffee and muffins are on the coffee table
Besides the prodigious couch--sufficient for family reunions! or business meetings if it's a small business!--this is where their floral workshop is located, so there are plenty of green things on view.
Second floor shelves
On the way home, the sun was fully out and taking full effect!
Friday 10/31 brought an update from Chasing Mailboxeswith great pictures from the field. Meanwhile, I have one ride to go before I qualify for a patch...
Lindale Mall is dangerous to access for pedestrians or cyclists
What is our collective responsibility to people who have made rational (in their minds) decisions based on previous bad policies? How much money should be spent mitigating the badness, as opposed to putting money into areas with better infrastructure?
Ten years ago, I was bothered, to say the least, by news (Smith, cited below) that the city was planning a major project widening Collins Road by Lindale Mall. The proposal included raising Collins in order to extend Lindale Drive underneath it and into the mall parking lot. The total cost was projected to be $15.4 million, of which the City of Cedar Rapids was providing 20 percent, with the rest funded by state and federal grants. According to a comment by the Corridor MPO's redoubtable transportation planner, Brandon Whyte, about 10 percent of the total project cost would go to making Lindale Drive a "complete street" with eight-foot sidewalks on both sides.
Lindale Drive at frontage road, 2012 (Google Maps screenshot)
Lindale Drive dead end, 2024 (Google Maps screenshot)
My strong objections to the "complete streets" aspect of the project were informed by Jeff Speck in Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012). In Step 10, entitled "Pick Your Winners," Speck argues:
Most mayors, city managers, and municipal planners feel a responsibility to their entire city. As a result, they tend to sprinkle the walkability fairy dust indiscriminately. They are also optimists--they wouldn't be in government otherwise--so they want to believe that they can someday attain a city that is universally excellent. This is lovely, but it is counterproductive. By trying to be universally excellent, most cities end up universally mediocre. Walkability is likely only in those places where all the best of what a city has to offer is focused in one area. Concentration, not dispersion, is the elixir of urbanity. (2012: 259, emphasis mine)
Still, the city officials quoted in the Gazette article made valid points. When Gary Peterson of the city's Public Works Department said the project would provide "pedestrians and bicyclists an inviting option in one of the city's principal commercial centers where few options now are in place for them," he was not wrong. The only non-car option at present is the #5 city bus, which stops on 1st Avenue in front of the mall on its inbound trip, though I've frequently seen people get off a few minutes earlier on the outbound trip and then sprint across 1st Avenue (average daily traffic count 18,700) to the mall or McDonald's. I do not recommend this.
The Grant Wood Trail passes about three-quarters of a mile north of Collins Road. Riding south on Lindale Drive towards the mall is not bad, but getting across Collins to the mall would be is an ordeal. People also live around here; besides trail riders, there are a number of relatively inexpensive apartments and town homes north of Collins, along Lindale Drive, Park Place, and Northland Drive.
Lindale Manor mobile home court, 400 Lindale Drive, Marion (Google Maps screenshot)
Could the residents' lives be made less car-dependent? Yes. Should that be a priority for city spending? I still wonder.
In 2018-19, Collins Road was widened as planned, eliminating the frontage road, and sidewalks were extended along Lindale Drive and Collins Road itself. But Collins Road was not raised, and Lindale Drive was not extended underneath.
Collins Road at Lindale Mall entrance, 2012 (Google Maps screenshot)
Collins Road at Lindale Mall entrance. 2024 (Google Maps screenshot): The road is wider, the sidewalk is new. Note the sun is in the faces of westbound drivers
(It is possibly relevant here that a Hy-Vee supermarket on the south side of Collins, just west of the mall, has closed since I wrote that piece in 2015.) Your best option to access the mall on foot, bicycle, or wheelchair is a surface crossing with a traffic light about a quarter-mile to the west. Actually, I would say your best option is not to access the mall at all, but such snarkiness is not helpful in city planning.
Over the years, traffic on this stretch Collins Road has declined from about 27,500 (2013) to 25,000 (2017) to 24,000 (2021). On the service drive with the traffic light I referenced, it's declined from 5950 (2013) to 5300 (2017) to 4800 (2021).
Looking across Collins Road at Lindale Mall entrance (Google Maps screenshot)
Given there's going to be a lot of turning going on as well, safe crossing at this intersection is far from given, even when the drivers on Collins don't have the sun in their eyes.
Now that the (very expensive) widening of Collins Road has happened, the chance to piggy-back some active mobility access to the mall has probably passed. I still think that complete streets money for Lindale Drive was better spent elsewhere, making good walkable places great instead of making awful (even moreso after Collins was widened) walkable places less awful. But I'm less confident in that opinion than I was ten years ago.
Reality in Hiawatha, just a dream for downtown Cedar Rapids residents
Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance
Everybody thinks it's true--PAUL SIMON
This summer I spent more time at the Downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Market than ever before, mostly volunteering at the Linn County Trails Association booth and bike check. Our station is located at one corner of the park at Greene Square, off 3rd Avenue by the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and the railroad tracks. And therein lies a tale.
Linn County Trails Association bike corral at the Downtown Farmers Market
At least once every Saturday morning, a freight train rolled through the market, just feet away from me. (Cedar Rapids has not had passenger rail service in over 60 years.) The train moves very slowly, sometimes stopping or reversing, always accompanied by much sounding of the horn. I can't quote decibel levels, but, wow! One blast would be painful, but this goes on for five and sometimes as long as ten minutes. Mothers with babes in arms cover their little ones' ears. I've seen people at the market literally writhing in agony.
I'm still hearing the train, even though I live nearly two miles from the park, because we've had our windows open at night of late during a weird autumn heat wave. Trains come through at all hours, but always blasting the horn. From my house it's a "train in the distance," but it still goes on for 5-10 minutes, and I know what that sounds like downtown. Even inside with windows closed middle of the nights noise that loud and long have to be felt.
A story update in the Cedar Rapids Gazette last weekend reported that efforts to create "railroad quiet zones" in Cedar Rapids, first announced in 2017, are still active despite numerous delays. Reporter Elijah Decious cited supply chain issues after the pandemic, as well as unnamed problems with railway owners Canadian National (north of 6th Avenue SE) and Union Pacific (south of 6th Avenue). The city is responsible for pavings, sidewalks, and street approaches including concrete medians (to prevent drivers dodging around the crossing arms); the railroads are responsible for the rest, and will proceed at their own pace. The City of Cedar Rapids will bear the entire cost, estimated at $14.4 million.
The stretch between Sixth Avenue and Cedar Lake--which includes Greene Square--is now predicted to be finished in the spring. Union Pacific's portion should be completed "between 2027 and 2029," after which work will begin on another line, owned by CRANDIC Railway Company and running through Kingston Village.
I was impressed by the length of this 2023 train as it crossed 3rd Avenue, but not by the noise. What's changed?
This is an urgent matter, and I hope in the interim the train companies will look for alternatives to night after night of blast after blast. The neighborhoods through which the tracks run have been rebuilt after 2008, and even after all we've been through since then remain some of the most valuable property in the city. Still, people have been slow to return: population of the six census tracts in the center of town was 17,818 in 2022, barely more than in 2012 (just after the flood), and still about 15 percent down from 2000 (pre-flood). (More analysis of these data is in this 2024 post.)
It shouldn't be excruciating to live, visit, shop or work in the center of town. It is up to the city and the railroads to do what they can to make it pleasant and productive.
Railroad crossing at 10th Avenue in New Bohemia: Note the absence of crossing arms/gates
Railroad crossing at 5th Avenue by the public library: Arms and gates, but "equipment awaits," according to one who knows
This is a contentious season for mobility issues, as indeed it has been for practically everything else. Earlier this month, Kea Wilson of Streetsblog USA reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation is rescinding grants for multimodal projects, including in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bloomington-Normal, Illinois; and in the Naugatuck Valley area of Connecticut. Two of the applicants were specifically told the program was reallocating its grants to "projects that promote vehicular travel," which is consistent with the trend under Secretary Sean Duffy to shift away from previous goals of sustainability and equity (Wilson 2025, Ionescu 2025).
Despite this sad pass to which we've come, the City of Cedar Rapids is back to celebrate National Week Without Driving, promoted by America Walks and Disability Rights Washington. While these organizations are not against other goals like physical fitness or sustainability, their focus is firmly on equity: Thirty percent of Washington residents are nondrivers--disabled people who can't drive, people who can't afford a vehicle or gas, have suspended licenses or lack documentation to get a license, people who are too young to drive, choose not to drive or who have aged out of driving. But nondrivers are largely invisible... ("How Would You Get Around" 2025).
Monday, September 29 (sunny, 87F)
City staff handing out bagels and coffee to morning commuters
Biked to: Ground Transportation Center, St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Next Page Books
Yes, some people who are unable to drive, including When Driving Is Not an Option author Anna Zivarts, are able to get around by bicycle!
I started my morning with a "second breakfast" of a bagel and small coffee from Panera at the Ground Transportation Center, courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Department of Community Development and the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. (They did events like this last year, too, but I somehow missed them. How is that possible? What is this blog for anyhow?) The GTC is the transfer point for all routes except the Marion and Northeast circulators, and those riders whose attention we were able to get were pleasantly surprised. Buses provide a critical route to work or school for those whose mobility is limited, and because of the system's coverage orientation (Walker 2008) they are never going to be self-funding.
I arrived at the station about 8:00 a.m., which meant I navigated into downtown during the 10 minutes where the morning traffic is likely to be at its most intense. Nothing untoward happened, but I was conscious of being agile and knowledgeable enough to minimize encounters with cars. The most awkward moment was when I turned left in what appeared to be a brief break in opposing traffic, only to have the car I was turning behind slow way down to turn into a parking spot just around the corner (that probably shouldn't be a parking spot that close to the intersection)--unexpected but not dangerous. In all, I rode about eight miles to three places.
Bicycles are not only lighter and slower than cars, they are much easier to steal. When I stopped late in the morning at Next Page Books, Cedar Rapids' oldest independent bookstore, I locked my bike to a large post to which another bicycle was already locked. That bike immediately began emitting meek little beeps, which may have been intended to deter theft?
Passengers boarding the #7 bus
David Zipper's newsletter this morning discussed autonomous vehicles, which when fully ripe will contribute somehow to mobility. But there is a dangerous potential for "robotaxis," Zipper argues, to become so pleasant that everyone will spend more time in cars: The resulting spike in car traffic would be catastrophic for cities with limited street space. Crushing gridlock could exasperate residents, hobble employers, and cripple bus service. Mobility hubs, like one currently planned for Waco, Texas, haven't proven effective at changing travel habits. He concludes that since more than 90 percent of transit riders arrive at the station on foot, I sometimes wonder if cities and transit agencies should simply shift the resources... toward building high-quality sidewalk networks. Cedar Rapids, to its credit, had a huge push for sidewalk construction about a decade ago, though there are still places where they're needed.
Tuesday, September 30 (sunny, high 87F)
Boarding the #5 to downtown Cedar Rapids at the Twixt Town Road transfer point. The Northeast Circulator is in foreground; the Marion Circulator is in front of the apartment building across the street.
Bused to:(1) Trims Barbershop and Uptown Coffee, (2) Helen G. Nassif YMCA and Benz Beverage Depot [replaced at least one car trip]
Life and the transit system took me to Marion today. Google estimates the 4.5 miles from my home take about 11 minutes by car; the bus trip was about three times that, including the five blocks' walk to the stop.
Bus stop on 1st Avenue at 19th Street SE
I should probably consult Jarret Walker or someone about how much longer the bus can take versus a car trip and still attract ridership, but 3:1 is if I recall correctly pretty typical of Washington, D.C. Getting to Marion starts with the #5 bus, which runs up and down 1st Avenue every 15 minutes, making it Cedar Rapids' best bus line. The transfer point has moved over the years since the advent of the circulator a few years ago from Lindale Mall to the edge of the mall parking lot to where it is now, in front of an apartment building on Twixt Town Road. (Twixt Town Road, named by a poetically inclined city employee ages ago, runs along the border between Cedar Rapids and Marion.) The circulator got me to Uptown Marion ahead of my appointment, so I got to hang out in their remodeled City Square Park on a lovely morning.
City Square, Marion
(It even has public restrooms!)
After the stop by City Square, the Marion circulator ranges far and wide over the town. For that reason I expect it's not practical for anyone above maybe 15th Street unless they're desperate. I expect that's a dilemma for any transit system, even one that's committed to coverage: how to balance convenient access to all the places people live with how much inconvenience we expect them to endure to get where they're going. But for me today, with the "right" trip planned, and a flexible schedule, the bus was great. There were 19 riders headed downtown on my return trip, so it was right for others as well.
Jean-Paul Sartre, author of The Critique of Dialectical Reason (Swiped from algundiaenalgunaparte.com)
On my afternoon ride downtown on the #2, we participated in what Jean-Paul Sartre called a "group-in-fusion," when a gentleman in a wheelchair had to maneuver around a woman with a walker. I wound up holding her walker while he got situated. Then, back on route #5 for the outbound trip, it happened again when a number of the 20-plus riders moved seats to make room for another rider and his wheelchair. "Yay, team bus riders," one lady said. On a day when President Trump proposed to use cities as military training grounds, our city's residents were taking care of each other.
Gil Penalosa's Cities for Everyone webinar today featured Phil Ginsburg, general manager of parks for the city of San Francisco. San Francisco aims to provide a park within a 10-minute walk for everyone in the city, including rerouting car traffic from Golden Gate Park and along the Pacific coast to improve safe access--not directly related to transportation alternatives, but definitely sharing the same goals of equity (cf. Hartlaub 2025).
Wednesday, October 1 (sunny, high 84F)
Biked to: Vault Coworking Space
Walked to: (1) Healthiest State Lunch at Greene Square, (2) Wellington Heights neighborhood
Today's official observance of Week Without Driving was the Healthiest State Walk, which originated from three locations and ended with lunch on the lawn at Greene Square. I joined a group that originated at the Cedar Rapids History Center on 2nd Avenue, which for me entailed walking an additional mile or so north from the Wendler (formerly Geonetric) Building where I'm coworking today. My route to the meetup point was highly unpleasant, up 6th and 7th Streets and dealing with a lot of medical and Interstate 380 vehicular traffic that wasn't expecting to have to deal with me. That included but was not limited to a woman on 7th Street signaling for a right turn at 6th Avenue who went through the intersection without turning--she was turning right into a parking lot past the street, not onto the street itself--and was not going to yield to the blogger in the crosswalk. Were I not fit and agile, I would never have attempted this walk.
The Healthiest State Walk proper and the lunch (catered by Craftd) were quite convivial; my group's walk was led by MedQuarter executive director Phil Wasta. Greene Square is a great space when it's activated. Betsy Borchardt from the City brought her dog to the park, who provided some drama as she squirmed to get at a nearby squirrel. Sadly or happily, depending on your perspective, her natural drive was denied.
Walking to lunch at Greene Square
In the evening, I went back out to do some door-to-door canvassing in the Wellington Heights neighborhood about a proposed restroom in Redmond Park. This effort is not directly related to Week Without Driving, but is aiming at the same goal of inclusive communities.
The latest Active Towns podcast episode arrived today. Host John Simmerman interviewed triathlete-turned-real estate mogul Michael Lovato, a resident of Boulder, Colorado. They describe Boulder as a haven for active people, which can include professional athletes but also people who want to stay physically fit and those who want to remain active through physical decline--all reasons to make it feasible to live well without driving!
Thursday, October 2 (sunny, high 86F)
Bused to: Helen G. Nassif YMCA, Lightworks Cafe [replaced car trip even though I...]
Drove 😒 to: CSPS Hall
As Rook Wilde took the stage at CSPS Hall tonight, it was already dark outside
I made it to Thursday of the Week Without Driving without driving, but I saw this event on my calendar and knew it would break the skein. CSPS Hall, an eclectic arts venue where I frequently volunteer, is a hair over two miles from my house. I've frequently bicycled there during the day, and it's a mere three blocks from the #2 bus line stop by the Linn County Public Health building. But I'm not a confident night cyclist in a town that doesn't expect me, and the last city bus leaves the station at 7:15 p.m. With tonight's concert expected to go past 9:00, I opted to drive my car. I'm grateful I have that option available.
CSPS's one non-driving staff member, photographer Charles Black, lives in an apartment six blocks away, so he and his camera rely on an e-bike. He's going to be moving soon, though, due to the city's zoning-related demands on his current landlord. Happily he found an abode even closer--now he'll be only four blocks from CSPS Hall!
A new month reminds me to check my bike tires!
The Community Development folk were back at the Ground Transportation Center this afternoon, with treats for afternoon commuters, particularly high school students who use the city bus to get to and from school. They were planning to serve ice cream, but weren't sure about the logistics, particularly on another unseasonably warm day. I didn't get down there, but I wonder how it went?
Elsewhere, Cleveland-based blogger Angie Schmitt wrote today about an Ohio legislator's claim that traffic deaths are over-hyped. He told Schmitt's group that 1,300 annual traffic deaths in a state with a population over 11 million amounted to a very tiny risk. Yet, as Schmitt argues:
The thing is, these odds add up over time. Most people... live for 60 or 80 years if they're lucky. Risks compound... If we were to take those tiny fractions and add them up year after year, guess what? They start getting bigger. In the U.S., using 2022 data, the odds of being killed in a car crash over a lifetime are 1 in 93. More than 1 in 100 Americans can expect to die in a car crash over the course of their lifetimes.
Traffic safety, by this mathy logic, is a concern for everyone, not merely collateral damage from our (enjoyment of? attempts to accommodate to? assertion of individuality in?) car-dependent city design. That Ohio legislator was wrong to diminish the issue of traffic safety, but for many of us, he only said the quiet part out loud.
The same can be said for non-drivers, whether they are that way from necessity or choice: they are people with legitimate stakes in how we roll, not mere statistical anomalies in what James Howard Kunstler once called "the era of happy motoring."
Friday, October 3 (sunny, high 88F)
Biked to: Coe College, Bricks Bar and Grill
My bike parked at Coe. The pergola at right honors the late Professor Dan Lehn.
I spent my day at my office at Coe College, from where I mostly retired a year and a half ago, then met some friends for happy hour at Bricks downtown.
Entrance to Bricks
Bricks has been in town longer than I have (1989), but is still going strong under the management of the Fun Not Fancy group. It is located where the main bike trail crosses 2nd Avenue SE, and though they hosted the after party for Bike to Work Week 2014, they haven't visibly appealed to cyclists as much as other bars along the trail have.
City bike rack outside Bricks, with my bike and my friend Chris's bike
In all, I rode about four miles to three places.
This year the city added to the commemoration of Week Without Driving a commuter bike ride in the style of Bike to Work Week. That happened today, riding downtown mostly on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail from McCloud Place on the northeast side in the morning, and back in the late afternoon. The same ride in May drew a small handful of riders, but everyone we can get into the spirit of this idea represents a step forward.
Rick Reilly's column in today's Washington Post demands greater regulation of e-bikes. The same technology that enables Charles to get his camera to and from CSPS Hall, and extends the possibility of bicycle rides, can be ridden aggressively and dangerously. He cites a number of examples from his home state of California as well as suburban Chicago. Reilly recommends requiring drivers' licenses to drive any motorized vehicle, as well as fines and community service for violators. All this requires enforcement, however, and for a variety of good and bad reasons police presence on the streets has diminished nationwide. Accommodating non-drivers, especially those who are especially vulnerable, in our transportation system won't work unless the streets, and sidewalks and bike lanes, are safe.
Saturday, October 4 (sunny, high 86F)
Rode to: Bruegger's Bagels [replaced car trip]
Drove 😒 to: Zoey's Pizza
My bike in front of Bruegger's Bagels
A day after parts of Montana got socked with a foot of snow, we are still having summerlike temperatures, threatening but so far not breaking daily record highs. We have set a seasonal record with nine straight highs in the 80s.
I dodged a drive this morning because my list of errands stopped at one: to pick up bagels for Sunday breakfast. Bruegger's, the national bagel chain, has two Cedar Rapids locations, one only about two miles from our house. Mt. Vernon Rd. SE is a notorious stroad, but Bruegger's is on the north (our) side of the stroad, so I can get there by side streets. Once there, I spotted former mayor Ron Corbett among the diners. They offer free coffee if you order ahead through the app, and I managed to get that home in my drink holder without spilling too much. A four-mile bike ride with a dark roasted reward reminds me that Coffeeneuring starts in about a week; check the hashtag on your favorite social medium for more information, or you can live vicariously through the ride-by-ride coverage on Holy Mountain.
Saturday night I drove us out to dinner. We could have tried adhering to the letter of Week Without Driving--at the very least, Jane could have driven instead of me--but we didn't. The dining options within walking distance on a hot evening were not enticing, which carries a lesson for us all. Those of us who can drive sometimes drive because we don't feel like not driving.
Greater Greater Washington today posted an article by disability advocate Kelly Mack, who writes a blog on Substack called Rolling With It and uses a power wheelchair to get around Washington, D.C. She praises the improvements in mobility (transit buses with ramps, Metrorail elevators, more accessible taxis, sidewalks in good repair) during the 2000s. "I could access: work, medical appointments, stores for errands, and the many leisure activities I enjoyed, like visiting restaurants, theaters, and museums." Lately, though, she's "noticed a steady decline in the quality of accessible transportation options," with widespread broken elevators at Metro stations, erratic bus service, unplowed sidewalk ramps, and such. She refers to a "transportation rime tax" for disabled citizens whereby "Every piece of the transportation puzzle adds up to subtract time and energy from my life." As an advocate, she meets frequently with government officials on these very subjects, but finds only lip service, which she calls the "uh... hm factor." Mack, unlike me, can't drive herself when other options are too inconvenient or strenuous. It would be good to have a disability advocate, and I know they're out there, do some audits as part of next year's Week Without Driving in Cedar Rapids.
Week Without Driving is a good experience, if only for raising awareness. I found it not difficult to manage, with only a couple defections, because I'm [a] agile enough to walk places, [b] retired so I can roll with the bus's schedule, and [c] able to fall back on driving when all else fails. It would be more interesting to read about the regular experience of someone who literally can't drive.
