Culdesac: Post-Car City Builder
Can you design your way out of car dependency? Culdesac Tempe thinks so.
Hi 👋
Welcome to Infinite Block. This week we take a long, meme-filled look at Culdesac Tempe’s ambitions to build a car-free community from scratch, right in the traffic-clogged heart of America (scroll down to read). It’s a fascinating piece for anyone who is interested in the intersection of car dependency, city planning, and startups.
Before you jump into this post, we suggest reading last week’s newsletter to get to know us, our process, and our ideas.
ICYMI: we launched the Infinite Block podcast yesterday. For the first episode, Horace Dediu discusses why he believes the city is one of the most successful technologies ever invented. (Available on Spotify, and soon, Apple Podcasts.)
This week’s post is written by Max Kim, who if you don’t know already, is a passionate urbanist who loves anything to do with cities. He runs a newsletter on urban trends and city success stories called CityBits, and is also on Twitter at @CityBits_Max - check him out.
Today’s Infinite Block is brought to you by… Lattis
It’s no secret that we think micromobility is *directionally* going to play a huge role in the future of cities. But what the ultimate incarnation of the business will be (shared rentals, personal ownership, long-term subscriptions, delivery leasing, etc), no one knows. So for now, it’s probably smart for manufacturers and operators to explore all their options.
To help, Lattis builds a super app that enables scooters, ebikes, and mopeds to be deployed flexibly through 3rd-party partnerships across multiple use-cases, including consumer solutions, sharing enterprises, and delivery. So at rush hour your ebike could be rented to a commuter trying to beat traffic, and by dinnertime, it could be used by a local restaurant delivering bánh mì.
One vehicle, one app, countless uses. Pretty clever.
And we can imagine how the ecosystem could get even larger as Lattis layers on insurance, gamification, AI tools, analytics, logistics, financial services, etc - all benefits that keep users more engaged.
If you want to learn more about Lattis, you can reach them here.
Culdesac Tempe: Can you design your way out of car dependency?
By Max Kim
In the past few years, a curious thing has been happening in our cities.
Long dominated by cars and car-centric infrastructure, urban centers around the world have begun to take steps away from car-dependency. For example:
Doing away with parking minimums for developers in cities like Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto
Proposing or implementing congestion pricing for motor vehicles in Singapore,1 London, and NYC
Taking away road space from cars and repurposing it for cyclists and pedestrians in cities across Europe, Asia, and North America
All this points to a slow but widespread realization that our current car-dependent way of urban life is unsustainable. Cars pollute, they’re noisy, they cause accidents, and they are wildly inefficient in terms of both energy- and space-usage when compared to other modes of urban transport, like subways, buses, and bicycles.
However, the truth is that most urban areas today have evolved for decades with cars in mind, so you can’t just suddenly take away cars and expect there to be a seamless transition. At a bare minimum you also need to improve public transit, build bike lanes, and increase walkability to balance out the removal of cars. And while many cities are implementing these kinds of changes, it often takes a lot of time, money, and effort to do so. More than one armchair urbanist on Twitter has noted that it’d probably just be easier to build a new, car-free city from scratch.
Well, on a 16-acre plot of land in Tempe, Arizona, one company is giving that idea a shot.
Today we’ll look at Culdesac, a startup that recently raised $30M in Series A funding and is nearing completion of their pilot project Culdesac Tempe. The project is a mixed-use development designed to house ~1,000 residents across 636 apartment units, with move-ins scheduled to start in late 2022. Culdesac Tempe represents one of the most ambitious and, in my opinion, promising attempts at building a car-free neighborhood in recent history.
In today’s post, we’ll break down why anyone would want to build this kind of city, the pros and cons of car-free living, and finally what it might mean for other communities around the world. Let’s dive in.
Why do we need car-free cities?
First off, we should understand where the car-free concept is coming from. What is the appeal of building a city without automobiles? Well, there are a few main reasons:
By now we probably all know that cars are not good for the environment
But even fully electric vehicles still produce harmful airborne particulate matter and noise pollution
Cars also cause traffic and congestion, which costs cities billions of dollars a year in lost time and productivity
Roughly 1.3M people a year die in automobile crashes, with more than half of those victims coming from “vulnerable” groups like pedestrians or cyclists. As well, automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 globally.
So, we can see that there are environmental, economic, and public safety reasons to reduce or fully get rid of cars in urban areas. You may have even experienced these benefits firsthand during the pandemic, when cities around the world experimented with reallocating road space for outdoor dining, community areas, or even mini-gardens. Additionally, many shops and businesses that were on these car-free streets actually saw an increase in business! Culdesac Tempe is attempting to take these tried-and-true lessons and build a new community based on them.
Why it’s great
So now we understand why one might want to reduce, or even fully get rid of, cars in cities. But Culdesac Tempe is special not just because it’s car-free, but because of how it uses that car-free design to bring real benefits to its residents.
Just think about all the parking lots, wide roadways, parking garages, expanded intersections, on-street parking, etc. that are no longer needed once you get rid of cars. Getting rid of cars is smart policy because cars pollute, take up space, and are dangerous. But it’s also good for residents because it frees cities from the infrastructural constraints that come with car-dependency and affords planners/developers a whole host of new opportunities.
There are four main areas where I think Culdesac Tempe is passing these benefits onto their residents. Broadly speaking they are:
Public space
Dense, walkable neighborhoods
Mobility-rich environments
Affordable, dense housing
Let’s take a closer look at each one.
Public open spaces
Culdesac Tempe is giving all the space it saved by NOT planning around automobiles right back to residents in the form of parks, communal fire pits, wide public streets (for micromobility use or pedestrians), dog parks, and walkable commercial districts. Every apartment will have a semi-private outdoor courtyard, and buildings will be connected by shaded, aesthetically pleasing walkways. When finished, a whopping 55% to 60% of Culdesac Tempe will be open space that is available for public use. Compare those numbers to other cities like Beijing (42%), Paris (29%), or San Francisco (14%) and you can see how Culdesac Tempe really takes advantage of going car-free and passes those benefits onto their residents.
Dense, walkable neighborhoods
The high amount of open space leads directly into the second major benefit, Culdesac Tempe’s concentrated levels of density and walkability. Much of the development is modeled after classic Greek, Italian, and French villages that were designed before cars were invented, and thus emphasized pedestrian, rather than vehicular, travel. In fact some might argue that Culdesac Tempe is not so much a new kind of city as it is a throwback to traditional urban planning from a time before cars overran our communities.
The second half of the walkability equation is that the area needs to be dense enough that things are actually within walking distance. I don’t care how pleasant of a stroll it is, I don’t want to walk 45 minutes to get my groceries. To that end Culdesac Tempe will blend restaurants, coworking spaces (including site-wide WiFi), and shopping areas all within the same area, ensuring proximity and promoting walkability.
Mobility-rich environment
Now I’ve been using the term “car-free” throughout this article because it’s easy to understand (and let’s be honest, it’s a radical idea and controversy is good for engagement) but Opticos Designs, the overall design director for Culdesac Tempe, prefers to describe the project as a “mobility-rich” environment.
What does this mean? Well, while we know that promoting walkability has enormous positive implications for public health, quality of life, and even the economy, the project also recognizes that not every trip can be made on foot. That’s why, in addition to having high levels of walkability, all Culdesac Tempe residents will be within a:
4-minute walk of the Valley Metro Light Rail (which services parts of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa, AZ, as well as Phoenix’s airport)
1-minute walk of a rideshare pick-up point
1-minute walk of bike/scooter parking
Residents are also automatically enrolled in a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) program (valued at ~$3,000 per year) as part of their rent, which gives them access to:
Bird scooters
Lyft Pink membership (15% off all Lyft rides)
Free metro passes
Cheap carshares/rentals for longer drives or weekend getaways
While there are no residential parking spaces within Culdesac Tempe, there are rideshare pick-ups/drop-off sites around the perimeter, as well as a parking lot for visitors/deliveries on the western edge of the property. Additionally, for emergency situations, there is a central lane that runs through the development to allow fire engines, ambulances, etc. to access the area.
Housing density and affordability
Finally, taking away cars not only gives Culdesac a lot more physical space to work with, there are also significant economic benefits as well. Not needing to build parking spaces on the street, parking structures underneath buildings, or garages attached to houses means developers save money. The cost of building just ONE parking space in a new development can add anywhere from an extra $20,000 to $50,000 to total development costs, not to mention all the time, money, and effort spent to maintain, repair, and monitor those parking spaces as well.
By doing away with parking, Culdesac Tempe is able to pass on those savings to residents.2 Apartment options in Culdesac Tempe will consist of multifamily buildings for 2, 4, 6, or 8+ households, with options for 1, 2, or 3 bedrooms. Striking this balance between suburban-style housing and larger apartment complexes allows Culdesac to accommodate more residents than would be possible under single-family zoning laws, while still providing a dense, walkable community. This model allows Culdesac Tempe to have 2x the density of San Francisco, but 3x the amount of open space!
sCars of our past
Culdesac Tempe isn’t special just because it’s car-free. It’s also special because of how it uses that lack of cars to bring tangible benefits to its residents.
According to a 2021 study by the National Association of Home Builders the top community features that American homebuyers want are:
Walking/jogging trails
Park areas
Being near retail space
A walkable community
Culdesac Tempe has all those covered! And the beauty of it is that one benefit begets another. Planning for car-free neighborhoods can make urban areas denser. More density allows for more walkability, more walkability encourages businesses and commercial interests, and the cycle continues.
Criticisms
So far we’ve looked at Culdesac’s rationale for building car-free cities, and some of the potential advantages that this model can bring. However, there are some reasons to be skeptical. I want to emphasize that overall I’m still very optimistic about Culdesac Tempe’s chances of success, but for the sake of argument let’s take a look at some potential downsides/criticisms and understand why car-free doesn’t necessarily mean carefree.
It’s a work in progress
First, it’s important to note that nobody actually lives in Culdesac Tempe just yet. The site is still under construction, and while some units have already been leased (with a waitlist of ~3,300 people), the first tenants won’t move in until late 2022. I do think Culdesac is being smart by starting small and building relationships with established commercial vendors, but anyone who’s ever worked at a startup, or for a city government, will tell you that there’s always unexpected issues when it comes to actually executing and implementing a plan. And since Culdesac Tempe is arguably both a city and a startup, it’s easy to imagine unforeseen issues arising once move-in actually starts. I’m optimistic, but until proof of concept is actually established, there are some unknowns.
It’s a planned city
… and proof of concept is especially important to Culdesac Tempe because it is a planned city, which is a concept that hasn’t worked out so well historically. By “planned city” I’m referring here to cities that are built from scratch, not planned like NYC’s gridded street system. These projects are difficult not only because you have to build everything from the ground up, but also because you need to actually get people to move there! Dr. Sarah Moser of McGill university has spent her career studying planned cities and found that, generally speaking, they have an abhorrent (seriously, like 0%) success rate when it comes to hitting their population targets.
Culdesac is doing a great job of advertising itself so far (after all, it was a cool enough idea to get me to write this article in the first place) but there’s a huge difference between garnering some interest on social media and actually convincing someone to uproot their life and move someplace new.
In fairness, the concepts behind many other planned cities are often much more outrageous, or they have much higher population targets than Culdesac Tempe’s modest goal of 1,000 residents. And unlike others, Culdesac isn’t betting on any unproven technologies, like flying cars or carbon-capture skyscrapers. However, the point still stands that enticing new residents to move to Tempe will be harder than relying on natural growth.
What if I just really like driving?
This last point is less a criticism and more just an acknowledgement of the fact that some people enjoy or need to drive for disability/preferential reasons. And that’s fine! The point is not that cars are 100% evil across the board, it’s just that they don’t NEED to dominate urban areas as much as they currently do. So maybe Culdesac Tempe’s strict car-free model isn’t for everybody, but there are probably plenty of people who’d prefer to drive less and don’t feel they have many good living options.
Conclusion
So, what did we learn today?
There are economic, environmental, and public health reasons to want a car-free city
By designing for people, not cars, Culdesac Tempe is able to build a denser, more walkable city and provide a “mobility-rich” environment without isolating itself from the surrounding area
While the overall concept might sound great, it’s still a work in progress and the history of planned cities doesn’t exactly scream guaranteed success
Overall I’m a big fan of Culdesac. While it’s probably prudent to Tempe your expectations (sorry) until the project is actually livable in late 2022, it’s still a huge step in the right direction towards building healthier, more sustainable, more human-focused cities.
With modest goals, concrete steps already being taken, enormous public interest, and the latest round of venture funding, I’m highly optimistic about Culdesac Tempe’s chances.3 And as more cities around the world look to reduce car-dependency, and residents begin to realize the benefits of dense, walkable communities, I’m hopeful that any success in Tempe will have powerful impacts on how we think about what a city is, and more importantly, what it can be.
Singapore’s congestion pricing has actually been around since 1975, but they continue to innovate and improve the system, including a new proposal that would require all cars to have on-board tracking units by 2023.
Culdesac Tempe studio apartments start at $1,090 per month, with one-bedrooms going for $1,250 per month.
Culdesac seems to be optimistic too. They’re already looking ahead towards future developments that could house 5,000, 10,000, or even 100,000 people.