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 anywhere I wanted to go.
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 Naperstek. 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, and they know that. 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...
Week Four
7!! Tuesday, November 4 (Cloudy, 67F)
Coffee at:Apple Creek Coffee Co., 4215 Lewis Access Rd, Center Point [round trip 38.5 miles]
Greetings from Center Point!
I chose a long ride to close out my coffeeneuring card, and to celebrate what's probably the last warm day of 2025 (although these days, who knows?). I began by voting in our local city council and school board elections...
Bethany Lutheran Church has no bike rack, but it does have trees! and voting booths!!
...then rode to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and up to Center Point. It was still chilly, but I was dressed for it, and after awhile I began to feel too warm. If I unzipped my jacket and took off my gloves, I was too cold. So it goes. Averaged out it was a pleasant ride on a lovely late fall day.
Cedar Valley Nature Trail 7 miles south of Center Point
I passed Lafayette, a former town which used to have a train depot.
1914 depot site, Lafayette IA
I met my friend John at Apple Creek, Center Point's gathering place that serves coffee, breakfast and ice cream, and is open til 6 on weekdays. It's not easily accessible from the trail, which goes to the business district on the other end of town, about a mile north of where Apple Creek Coffee is. I tried to cut off the extra miles by going over on Fay Road, a packed gravel country road that was fine, but required me to enter town on the county highway. The long way is probably better.
Apple Creek is located in s strip mall near the interstate highway entrance, next door to a chiropractor, whose services I might have utilized after my long ride.
my bike parked at Apple Creek Coffee Co.
I had a brownie and coffee. There was a table full of locals, and some customers at other tables as well.
my beverage and snack
In time I rode home. This time I went north to the trail along Main Street, through the suburby area behind the strip mall, eventually reaching the charming downtown. There I caught the trail and headed south. A number of other people were taking advantage of the weather and the trail: I met 15 cyclists, a few walkers, a couple guys standing having a conversation, and one guy doing push-ups. But the south wind that was blowing in the pleasant air was in my face for the whole time. The return trip took me 25 percent longer than the ride north (1:40 instead of 1:20), and I was a wreck for the rest of the day. I salute my fellow coffeeneurs for whom a nearly-40 mile ride is barely exercise. I tried today to keep up with you, and I'm still feeling the effects.
One of four (!) rest areas along the trail
c+1. Thursday, November 6 (60F)
Coffee at:Brewhemia, 1202 3rd Street SE [round trip 5 miles]
one of several bike parking places around Brewhemia
The official coffeeneuring rules allow for "bonus rounds," so I decided to get one more in before the weather turns foul this weekend. I rode to this popular spot in New Bohemia, a brisk but not terribly ambitious ride. I brought The Odd Woman and the City, which I'm rereading for an upcoming post, but I often run into people I know. (Did I mention it is popular?)
Today, I saw people I know only because of their fame, actor/director Jason Alberty and, coming out of the cafe across the street, city manager Jeff Pomeranz. I also saw my friend Dorothy, who used to be president of the Oak Hill Jackson Neighborhood Association, which I think makes her a celebrity as well.
all I need for a coffee shop morning
On the way home, I was nearly hit by a truck turning left in front of me (not aggressive, just oblivious), and then I had to go around a car stopped in the bike lane (driver was on his phone maybe looking for diretions). For good or ill, cycling and its inherent vulnerability puts you in touch with other people more than driving does. I enjoy the fresh air and exercise, but at some point I'm probably going to get tired of riding a bicycle in a persistently auto-centric world. In the meantime, there's coffeeneuring! I've loved connecting with people across the world who are doing this crazy challenge. Catch you next fall!!
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
