Bicycle City: The Town Without Cars

A bike taxi in South Carolina, home of Bicycle Citys first programmed development.Photo: Smudge 9000

A proposed car-free growth for cyclists in South Carolina could shift a immature housing transformation in a big wayif it gets off a ground.

Headed by Joe Mellett, an internet marketer as well as bike fan from Cincinnati, a Bicycle City plan aims to build an eco-friendly village in a Columbia suburbs which would allow residents to get around by regulating bikes instead of cars.

The judgment is modeled in large part after a Swiss urban area of Zermatt, a tourist locale during a foot of a Matterhorn which criminialized combustion-engine vehicles in a 1960s to preserve a air quality. Unlike Zermatt, where electric cars have been a norm, all transport in Bicycle City will be by bike or foot, a first in a US.

In an talk with a Architizer blog, Mellett pronounced a thought for a bikes-only village came to him in 1986, when he as well as multiform friends made a 4,200-mile cross-country bike trip to lift money for charity. Mellett began to approach developers shortly thereafter, as well as by a early 1990s, conceptual work had started upon Bicycle City.

The National Sporting Goods Association census data say which cycling is some-more popular than skiing, tennis, as well as golf combined, Mellett told Architizer. So I figured, if theres room for hundreds of golf communities [in a US], why not a single biking community?

Image courtesy of Bicycle City.

It might sound Utopian, though after some-more than twenty years of planning, Bicycle City could be upon a approach to becoming reality. After raising seed funding, Mellett as well as his group paid for 140 acres of land near Columbia, SC, selecting a place for a network of greenways, proximity to public tra! nsportat ion, as well as general await for tolerable development.

The developers began building trails as well as an access highway progressing this year, as well as pronounced which they could proceed construction in a next couple of months.

Going green

Besides being car-free, Bicycle City is programmed to be an all-around eco-friendly community. According to a developments website, Bicycle City will include a modest organic plantation for residents. Houses, which will start in a $100,000s, will be built with solar panels as well as H2O heaters to optimize energy use.

How many people will pay which volume to live in a carless neighborhood stays to be seen; even a developers confess it isnt for everyone. Ozzie Nagler, a Harvard-educated designer as well as village designer with a project, told Charleston City Paper which some homeowners expected couldnt adapt to a bikes-only concept.

Some people simply wont welcome not carrying their car next to their home, he said. Over 1,500 people have sealed up to receive serve report upon Bicycle City, as well as a developers have recently started taking reservations from potential buyers.

If a first Bicycle City succeeds, Mellett plans to permit a judgment to developers around a globe, upon a condition which they adhere to criteria of sustainability as well as housing standards. Eventually, a plan hopes to build Bicycle City-style developments around a world, connecting them around a complement of greenways as well as trails for utterly car-free travel. While it might be a while before Bicycle City goes international, a group already has a list of potential locations in countries upon 6 different continents.

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