Rough plan to getting started

I've been living overseas (Panama, northern Japan, Germany) the past 
9 years, which has been a great opportunity to see parts of the world 
much less dependent on cars than America. I've learned alot, or at 
least witnessed alot, that I believe are important elements to 
creating a carfree city. Following are the key things I believe 
should be included:

1) Mixed income environment. I believe that can best be accomplished 
by building on an existing site, quite possibly within an existing 
city. I'm most familiar with San Antonio, so I'll use that as my 
reference. There is underdeveloped land near the San Antonio CBD 
which could be a good location for starting a carfree area. It would 
be the closest reach to all edges of the city, and very close to the 
center. It would also be close to the River Walk, a popular tourist 
attraction. That fact alone could enlist city support. San Antonio 
pins a lot of it's civic proud on the River Walk, which a common 
thread with a future carfree area...they're both carfree. A carfree 
area could be a perfect compliment to the River Walk, and may be the 
type of feature which could lift a city like San Antonio to the 
American version of Venice.

2) There needs to be business to provide jobs for residents. I don't 
like the idea of a bedroom community, as that doesn't seem too 
different from suburbs or gated communities. If you have to travel 
to work, odds are you're going to struggle to be carfree. Some 
businesses would pretty much serve the carfree community market, 
while others should attract consumers and business from folks who 
don't necessarily live in the carfree community. I would expect an 
outdoor shopping area (similar to the "walkplaz" concept in Germany) 
to be a popular destination for all the residents of the city, not 
just the residents of the carfree area.

3) The area needs to be big enough to support a high school. I see 
that as the key indicator that we would have the population to 
support all grades. Not sure why, that's just my observation. This 
is important because keeping schools within the distance to negate 
the need for travel is important for ensuring a true "mostly" carfree 
lifestyle. I base this point on my personal experience...I ride a 
bike to work every day, but still find myself shuttling kids around 
after work so they can participate in school activities. As much as 
I work to eliminate car use in my life, I find it impossible. In 
reality, the kids could use bikes to get to school as it's less than 
10Km, but that's not going to happen, especially in Germany where a 
lot of bike commuting is done in rain, on ice and snow and in the 
dark. You've got to be pretty hardy and dedicated to commute by bike 
very far all the time, most folks simply aren't willing to do it.

4) Quality and attractive buildings. I never really noticed what 
made buildings attractive until the past couple of years. I'm not an 
architect, so what I've learned has been through books such 
as "Geography from Nowhere" and "Carfree Cities". I believe Europe 
has very good models, I'm most familiar with Germany and France. 
Important features are ceramic style roof shingles, thick walls with 
deep window sills, very limited wood use in construction, screens 
avoided wherever possible, quality windows & doors, and modern 
radiator heating systems to mention a few. I would go even so far as 
to suggest a carfree area (or any other American area) would benefit 
greatly from learning construction techniques from Europe and using 
European materiels, or creating our own equivalents. This type of 
construction and building materiel manurfacturing could even become 
one of the core businesses supporting a carfree area.

5) Community standards. I'm military, which has an advantage that 
I've learned to accept community standards, a common feature on Air 
Force installations. One of the things I've noticed in Japan and 
Germany is the requirement for residents to clean streets routinely, 
and maintain their property simply for the benefit of the village or 
town in general. The results are much cleaner and more attractive 
places, which in turn I believe people are most enthusiastic about 
taking care of. We lack this habit in America, partly I believe 
because we don't tolerate being directed to do things simply for the 
good of the public. Community standards can begin establishing a 
norm of placing public interests over private interests, which is 
particularly important for dense living.

I have a great many thoughts on carfree living, but suspect this is 
long enough.

v/r, Kevin