To support people live rewarding lives more affordably, personal car ownership has to come under scrutiny – as does the outweighted influed cars have on the design of our neighborhoods. According to the AAA, a car driven 15,000 miles annually costs $10,728/year, or $894/month! If used towards a mortgage, that is an increase in what a family could afford for a house of between $150k-$200k depending on interest rates. It’s also could buy a whole lot of food.

Encouraging a variety of transportation modes is a great way to address climate change and increase affordability. Neighborhoods designed for people first tend to be more intricate, more enjoyable, and better loved. In a really neat twist, lowering energy expenses through providing car share opportunities, encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), removing barriers to the use of public transportation, and locating housing in bikable, walkable, transit-rich neighborhoods all increase the affordability of housing projects, as well as reducing one’s carbon footprint and increasing one’s happiness. When you can walk and bike to do errands and take the bus to your destination without having to own a car, you’ve saved yourself the cost of the second biggest expense after housing.

A key principle at Caddis is to design now for the world we want to see in the future. When contemplating your next affordable housing project or cohousing project, think about these issues so that you can support the needed change in the future.

Electric Vehicles

Now that EVs are gaining in popularity, many housing developers are adding electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSEs) so that these new vehicles can be charged. Check out our blog post on EVSEs to learn how to plan for future demand.

Car Share Programs

In addition to providing support for individual households to own EVs, Caddis also believes it is important to put a car share stall adjacent to the EVSE station. That car share vehicle could also be an EV that gets charged off the same infrastructure, ideally using on-site solar electric generation.

Car share programs don’t necessarily mean that a family can live car-free, but it might be that a household that would otherwise have two or three vehicles can get by with just one car. This can lead to a real reduction in parking requirements and car ownership and allow people the benefits of access to different types of cars.

Public Transportation, Biking, and Walking

Confronting climate change also means shifting away from private vehicular transportation whenever possible to taking public transportation and, better yet, biking and walking to meet daily needs (node shift, in planner-speak). To encourage more biking and walking, multifamily projects will ideally be sited within “15-minute neighborhoods,” also known as “complete neighborhoods.” All of us, collectively, need to demand a mode shift to biking and walking by seeking changes in land use practices and consumer culture.

As you develop and design multifamily projects, give as much thought to bike storage as you do to car parking and EVSEs. Ideally, housing projects will include room, mostly structured, for at least two bikes per household. This storage should be able to accommodate a mix of bike types, including cargo bikes, fat bikes, bikes with kid or utility trailers, and electric bikes and their charging stations.

Design now for the future you want to see – and as you do so, keep in mind the needs of increasing numbers of EV owners as well as families that don’t want to depend so heavily on a car or even own a car at all. The climate will thank you!

Above: Studio Mews: a people first, mixed use neighborhood in Boulder, CO