Here's something to consider: Tokyo's busiest metro stations are directly connected to malls, office spaces, and sometimes even apartments that are jointly owned and operated by the same companies who own and operate the trains/tracks/stations. Transit-oriented development like this is what makes places like Tokyo shine. If everyone's a 5 minute walk from a bodega/kombini and laundromat, you very rarely need to take the train at all. There might be a grocery store/produce market at the train station by work, so you can grab fresh produce or other groceries on your way home. Appointments and department stores are near train stations too.

Ya know, when I saw a car-free development in the title, I would NOT have expected it to be in the Phoenix metro area! Good work!

I'm not sure if you brought it up in the video, so forgive me if I missed it, but I think the developer was able to secure the no-parking deal by requiring that tenants do not own or bring cars in the first place, which kind of takes care of the no on-site parking concern, except those delivery spots of course.

I have visited culdesac IRL, it's very cozy and really nice and actually quiet. I loved it~ I wish I could live in it

I stayed here for a week last month, and really loved my experience there. I echo the "empty" feel critique. And while I totally get it, the gated entries to main residence areas made the place feel a little hostile towards non-residents. Would love to see the community be more inviting to general foot traffic from the nearby neighborhoods and apartment complexes.

Culdesac is the worst name possible for a car free neighborhood. Is it a bad attempt at irony?

While this idea is interesting, I don't believe it's sustainable to build disconnected neighborhoods like this. Hopefully, this will at least increase the popularity of walking neighborhoods across the country and inspire changes in existing downtowns, cities and neighborhoods. I am just concerned this project will be dead in the next decade as we have already learnt that the congregation of people into cities is a natural process and city planning should follow the movement of people not the other way around. In a way this is no different from the suburban experiment where we could end up with loads of these new neighborhoods (for let's be honest rich people) disconnected from each other with no real way to expand it into a real semi dense city.

I live a few miles away from Culdesac and have (ugh) driven by a number of times. I am really excited to see Culdesac continue to finish their build-out and am hopeful for great success that leads to a Phoenix-Metro-wide model for car-free living!

I couldn't help but notice the amount of bikes and e-bikes on residents patios. It feels like a miss to not have some other sort of secured bike parking so people don't need to lug their e-bikes up a flight of stairs and through their apartments, etc.... I know personally it is an issue where I live as well (we keep our bikes inside). Enjoyed the video!

I feel like America, as a whole, forgot what a town and neighborhood are and need. Like; just putting one fake Whole Foods and, perhaps, a restaurant or brewery doesn’t make a neighborhood. People need a dry cleaner, a shoe repair spot, a hardware store, multiple clothing stores, etc.. These are the businesses that people need on a daily basis, and not having them in your carless neighborhood will only make people drive to get to them. Either that, or you will force them to shop online, which requires vehicular delivery, further defeating the purpose of a carless existence (and furthering the death of what the neighborhood/town used to be). These days, developers think a neighborhood is an overpriced grocery store, an overpriced coffee shop, a restaurant, a bar, and a brewery. That’s not a neighborhood; it’s a destination. Make a town filled with goods and services that people need on a daily basis that supports a variety of businesses with healthy competition and choices, which create jobs for the community, and then add your residences. _That_ is a town.

I may have missed it, but are there enough employment opportunities inside the community for every resident to work and live in the neighborhood? If there are do they pay enough to afford to live in the neighborhood? I'm going to assume these are around "luxury" apartment prices, the kind that the average person needs at least one roommate to afford, so if they're paying the grocery store workers $15/hr and not giving them living space in the community this turns into a bit of a dystopian mess instead of the pleasant walkable dream it appears to be on the surface. Edit: just checked and the most affordable is $1459 for a 638sqft 1 bed 1 bath. Essentially continuing to perpetuate that livable neighborhoods are not intended for the working class.

Damn, Tempe went from almost building the worst economic disaster of a hockey stadium to an actual chance at sustainable development! Great change of pace!

This development will eventually house 1000 people and only 150 or so have been built currently. The amount of people walking of course is directed on peoples daily habits. Most people could be at work or doing stuff in their space. This place will eventually have a lot of activity especially since 4 other apartment developments within a half mile are being built. I also have gone to restaurant on site and I loved the food. Also talked to a few people and some had rode the light rail from downtown Phoenix so there will be plenty of activity especially as more businesses open in the retail spaces as they come available.

Babe! Wake up, a new Climate and Transit video dropped! Babe? Babe…? Oh wait. I’m single.

I live in the Phoenix area, and there's a reason Culdesac is still empty. Despite it being right on the light rail, there's only one line to ride. If you aren't going to a location along that line, and need to take a bus, expect a total trip length of 2 hours or more. Not to mention it's almost exclusively targeted towards ASU students and the "young professionals" (recent ASU grads) who work in Downtown Tempe, and it is a little pricey for most people. Although that is just the entire rental market here. It is really unfortunate, because these are the ideas that will save our cities! But the rest of this city is simply designed to be too car dependent to make one neighborhood like this mean anything. It also took YEARS to get it off the ground. It was already in pre-development over 5 years ago when I moved to the valley for school (studying urban planning). It took over 5 years to get one neighborhood like this, and it still sits mostly empty.

Lived in Cary NC and bicycling everywhere was great, you can bicycle from the waling paths, onto suburbs, onto sidewalks, back onto walking paths, and dirt paths in the parks. I want to live in Peachtree Georgia some day or somewhere similar. By the way, towns with public universities often have great bicycling as well, I used to love bicycling from Cary MC to Chapel Hill where UNC is, lots of nice winding beautiful little hilly bicycle trails.

As someone who doesn’t drive I want this to be feasible and improved on. I’ve been to Ireland France Poland Sweden and Norway and I love all of them for their easy access to public transportation.

I didn’t expect Arizona at all. I thought you are going to talk about Mackinac Island in Michigan which bans cars. It’s a lovely area!

That patreon promo transition was as smooth as an LTT sponsor transition. 10/10.

They nailed the visual design of the neighbourhood. Looks super cozy and lots of unique spaces to look at.

While I am skeptical about letting developers continue to steer trends, I appreciate the balls on CulDeSac to prohibit tenants from bringing a car on site, and focusing in on their market. I'm not gonna up and move to AZ for this, but I'm sure other like-minded people who can't afford NYC, CHI, BOS, or Europe may be swayed. I think this is a nice kind of intermediary from people used to living in suburbs, almost like a college campus. Hopefully it doesn't become just a reskinned version of a suburb or as others have pointed out, gated community.

Great tour! It'll be interesting to see what it's like after full build-out and if that will result in things being more "lively." I noticed that other developers are building a lot of traditional apartments surrounding the Culdesac area... perhaps people from those nearby apartments will patronize the businesses within Culdesac. I am a bit surprised to see that there's no pool available for residents? That's a pretty important amenity in the desert. Hopefully that's part of the final plans.

A big issue with Cul De Sac that I worry about is the lack of density actually. People don't walk as much actually as they used to, and so slightly higher densities are needed to fill public spaces with people. I think they should have widened some of the walkways and built the occasional 4-6 storey building. The final development will have 1000 people, which isn't actually that many people. If they had tried a bit to double it, they could gave had cheaper more fully fledged stores. I suppose we'll have to see.

At around the 2 minute mark, you asked the question of how Culdesac was able to get around Tempe's parking requirements, and your answer was that they were able to make a deal with the city. Can you please elaborate on this? What kind of deal? What did they have to give up in exchange for the exemption? Who struck the deal? How long did it take? What kind of pushback was there?

Living in a car free development would be awesome. I wouldn't mind if cars were common as long as it's walkable

This would be perfect to replace the Neshaminy Mall in Philadelphia. It's far enough out of the city that you don't have as many of the disadvantages but hopefully with both the Roosevelt Boulevard and the West Trenton line that it should be around an hour to reach center city via transit while giving Neshaminy and the surrounding towns a town center district more like smaller midwest towns (like Sandusky, OH) than a lifestyle center or whatever King of Prussia did at the interchange where I-76 turns off the PA turnpike

Thanks for doing this vid! I’ve been intrigued with cul de sac since hearing of its plans initially 3-4 years ago. We need more of this!!

I hope more walkable “islands” like this pop up in sunbelt and midwestern cities. I’ve noticed it in Denver a lot as well. The next step will be to link these neighborhoods via public transportation

I would LOVE to live in a car free community! 😍 I used to fantasize about living on Catalina Island (Los Angeles) which is not entirely vehicle free, but I’d be okay with go-carts & scooters…

2:29 The parkour potential 🤤

I would 100% live in a car-free community.

my favorite part is definitely the buildings. taking architecture and materials into account make a huge difference in temperature. while the walkways do look a tad claustrophobic, this is what we shouldve been building in the desert cities instead of the regular wood frame houses and big box apartments. the ac power drain in the summer would be much lower than it is and we wouldnt have brown/black outs where people end up dead

there was no rail when I lived in Phoenix. Cars cars everywhere. It would be a huge benefit of any city to have rail service. I live in Cape Coral florida and there are no rail services here. I have only seen ONE bus and it's not coming down my street. I drive an hour to work most days. It would be a pleasure to ride a bus or rail instead.

That grocery store is gonna be the biggest ripoff ever. They got all the residents caught with their pants down.

The biggest problem with these developments is that they don't have regular stores. All of the restaurants and shops are twee, overpriced stuff. Wheres the fast food? Wheres the regular grocery stores instead of the more expensive kind?

Walkable neighborhoods, with easy access to amenities and transit, are far preferable to suburban sprawl. The large single family home on a large lot is a throwback to an era when construction, housing, and automobile costs represented a much smaller percentage of people's family incomes. I would love to live in such a neighborhood.

I hope this succeeds just because they got an exception from minimum parking requirements. People need to see that parking requirements are not required for every development to be successful

These kinds of communities always feel empty at the start. People make car-free communities. You need to give people time to move in and friendships to form. Currently, people have no reason to go out other than to buy food and take the metro to work

ugh I used to go to university near this project and honestly this only caters to rich people and are unaffordable for the average person in Tempe. I like the idea and that is what America should strive for but make it affordable, where I live now it is extremely walkable but then again it is 500 years old.

Have I ever been to Culdesac? No, because I live all the way in Massachusetts! Would I live in a car-free community? Absolutely YES!!!!!!!!

It’s only empty because it’s not even 1/4 of its full size

I can't be the only one thinking that parts of this look like the setting of a indie video game with a very simple plot of "travel and solve puzzles in this little world" with a really calming soundtrack and a very simple art style that somehow works.

I'd like to see more communities like this. I'm in San Diego and public transportation is terrible, and riding a bike is dangerous. I'd love to not have to have a car.

Europe could teach the US about foot traffic zones and public transportation. America has always been lacking in providing its constituency with basic services and infrastructure.

I would give anything to live in such a community, esp if I had a remote-only job.

Have you checked out the mixed use development in Tampa called midtown.

It’s really great to see a community like this, I’m just surprised no one living there in the footage. It comes off inhabitable.

I’m curious why the buildings are only at like 3 stories? Curious if there’s truly enough people to self sustain the retail they propose.

Not gonna lie, this looks like a dream neighbourhood for me. It looks comfy and quiet but still very easily accessible when I want to hang out with friends. Plus it's near a train station!

I'd love to live like this. I don't own a car and get around on a motorcycle and ebike. This is what the US lacks.

Great to see! I would absolutely live in a car free community. In fact, it’s one of my dreams. Would love to see this expand and may our cities learn from this type of development! ❤

Nice idea, but does anyone actually live there? A walkable car free neighborhood with no one walking?

Interesting. When I visited the Phoenix metro back in 2019 I fell in love with Tempe specifically and promised myself I would live there sometime before I die. Now that I see this, it looks like it may be time to be an early adopter of this concept!

My hometown is planning to build mixed used buildings and multi family homes. Near and next to the bus stop and bus station. And also they say they are improving the bus station. But we’ll see about that

I love the light rail, I really want that. The only thing I "need" my car for is shopping trips where I stock up on suppllies. I would love to rent a car for half a day every 2 weeks to get those supplies. But I would need a hand cart to move from the car to the home. My knees are also not working well with stairs so I would want something at the ground level. With all that I could make it work.

Although it's cool that it is completely car free it still feels like a theme park and a radical statement towards american car dependance... I think it's possible to meet somewhere in the middle. I was raised in Oxie, Sweden in the 80's. A boring Swedish suburb outside of Malmö for lower middle class people. checkout Majsåkersvägen and Rågåkersvägen in Oxie, Sweden on google maps, how they allow for car ownership, garages, but still having entire areas completely cut off from car trafic. It's walkable and close to nature, with playgrounds etc... There's also a green area between these two roads with an underpass that leads to the school (underneath Byåkersvägen)... This allowed me as a kid to have free access to walk and bike around the whole suburb. Without ever engaging in car traffic... In Oxie Centrum we had a couple of local grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, gyms, library, a vhs rental, a video game store etc. With a population of ~10 000 people and a lot of kids even local commerce was achievable in a suburb of that size (and still is). The suburb has a lot of green areas, and a lot of walking paths (all small "roads" that you don't have street view on, are walking- and bike paths only). Why culdesac feels dead is because it's not lived in yet.... and perhaps never being big enough to actually house much social activity. I'm just afraid it will end up being a walkable deadish theme-park-like area that doesn't fit into the rest of the infrastructural landscape. Don't get me wrong. I'm ALL FOR car free societies. :) It's just that the US still has weird regulations that might force other new development to be starkly different from culdesac, rendering it to become an isolated "experiment" of sorts.... I hope I'm wrong.

Great to see and thanks for sharing. But I do wonder why they named it after one of the most common street types in car-centric suburbia?

It’s like they carved out a tiny slice of Madrid and brought it to the US.

I would definitely love to live in a neighbourhood like that! I would frequent that cafe too!

I would love to live in a car free neighborhood if that is a option in many cities. I live in the North Jersey suburb of NY.

I love seeing Metro Phoenix grow 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Having no cars is on the extreme end, but there is a market for such a place. The waiting list just to get a property on Toronto Island is famously difficult to get on to. There is an even greater demand for places that have less motor vehicle traffic than we think of as normal. People will pay extra for neighborhoods that don’t allow high speed traffic. The noise and dust from car tires on pavement are things people want to escape. The name of the development does make anyone who speaks French cringe, as “cul de sac” literally means “ass of the bag”. It also is synonymous with “dead end”. Not great marketing.

I'm thrilled to learn this is going on in the U.S. It's easy to see a "benign virus" like this spreading over time in a metro area like Phoenix and transforming it from a nightmare of a city (on my view) into a vibrant and livable place. I'm from the U.S. but have lived most of the last 35 years in Tokyo. I love Tokyo precisely because it is a human-scale, pedestrian-oriented city that has minimal zoning and grows and develops and changes organically. The greater metro area of Tokyo has 25 million or so people, but it's mostly a cluster of an endless series of walkable neighborhoods so it easy to function here. I have zero desire to ever live in US suburbia again, but if developments like this expand and begin influencing urban areas I'd think about returning for my Golden Years.

Love the initiative and design of this neighborhood. The biggest flaw I see is that it is plopped in a Phoenix suburb. While there is a quick connect to Metro and ride share capabilities, as a Phoenix resident I don't have 60 minutes to take a train and then walk to work and I would really have to forego visiting friends in other neighborhoods unless I'm paying for Uber. Again, its more a flaw of Phoenix urban design rather than this neighborhood but I hope the public transit system and local infrastructure continues to change so that a project like this can be a reality for a Phoenix resident like me.

Wow, this is so cool! I wonder how the hell the developer managed to convince the city council to not build parking spaces.

Thanks. I will plan a bus trip to visit their restaurant.

It also helps being a short tram/bike ride from a pedestrian friendly large university (ASU) and downtown Tempe. I would move here in a heartbeat if I wanted to burn in the hell that is Phoenix summer. Took a weekend trip last July with 110F temps and couldn't bike around more than 15 mins without chugging down a bottle of water

I think it's a great start while the next step can be that those car free / car less areas become a part of the community. That people can easily walk and cycle to those local community centers from neighboring areas that can be a mix of different types of apartment buildings, terrace- / townhouses and single family homes. Leading to a greater variety and more of local shops and restaurants. While also increasing the opportunities for public transport and other alternatives to cars. Like for example already in many parts of Europe.

It is in fact my favorite tautology-An absolute necessity. Increase the size 10 fold with more infrastructure with car rentals, hospital, swimming pools, theaters, market walking streets and you have a future that puts a dent into the car centric economy.

finally, a new carfree neighborhood! - mico p.s. came from youtube recommend (already subbed for months before!)

Perfect for ASU students that don't want to be too close to campus but not far away.

I have not been there yet, but from an outsider's perspective, looking in, my biggest issue with it so far is ... the name. Why call it "Culdesac"? Not exactly a word that evokes car-free culture. You're not likely to even SEE a culdesac in this place.

Aaaaand its all for rich people 1500k apartments. Glad to see rich people get to live the life i wish i could. This is for the people who want the aesthetic of urbanism and sustainability without all the dirty poor people

First shot is Chattanooga, TN - Love this town, not much public transit but very walkable if you live in Northshore.

It kind of feels like College without the classroom. even down to the shops and grocer. I don't even think that is a bad thing as I enjoyed the walkable nature of my college campus. It was nice waking up in the dorm, walking to the dining hall for breakfast, and then chilling around the green spaces around campus meeting all kinds of different people from all over the nation. I also think the agreement with the city to encourage public transit is a smart idea. I would love to see this concept in other cities.

That is not a neighborhood that just a really wide condominium with possible mix use zoning.

Great video, Ethan! I love the thought put into this community and can’t wait for more!

The problem with narrow streets/walkways is safety, those cute little streets can become unwelcoming and dangerous when more people move in or are opened to the general public. This looks a-lot like an British Estate.

That was a very appropriate tour; great length & editing! I refuse to call Culdesac a neighborhood. It’s an apartment complex and/or subdivision that is nicely designed for people to move about without a car. A community, probably. My other beef with their marketing is that it’s more car-light than car free. The primary difference is the lack of onsite parking lots. There’s still a parking lot for the commercial spaces (could be avoided if truly a car-free “neighborhood”, & the car is still a key method of getting around Tempe & the valley for it spread. The bus isn’t that useful & the train only runs on 20-minute headways. I was there a year ago before they opened & found that this island of car-lite was all alone with standard car-oriented development to be quite disappointing! I’ll check it out in a couple months but while I appreciate the pedestrian orientation, let’s not pretend this is how to construct sustainable & livable neighborhoods.

Very cool and it's a good start, although Culdesac could be better. As you said, hopefully we'll see more car-free places around the country! To keep the conversation going, there's an excellent video called "How to turn your Neighborhood into a Village" from Andrew Millison's channel.

I read an article about the this neighborhood and I'm glad to see real footage of this neighborhood

I hope this place succeeds, but tbh it kind of feels more like its "personality" is being the opposite of car dependancy rather than simply being a place that doesnt rely on cars. Its like someone who is technically doing the right thing but only in stubborness towards the wrong thing. Why are the buildings so sterile? Why is there no mention of encuraging small buisnesses and markets to fill in? Why is there no public space that everyone would have a sense of responsibility and ownership for, like a garden or art gallery?

I want this to work and expand rapidly. Typically it's pretty tough to design counter-systems within existing systems though.

This looks promising. Shame that it's so empty right now but as you say, hopefully that'll change soon. After looking at it on Google Maps, my only beef with it is that the pedestrian crossing to the light rail station looks quite dangerous. It's a very fast road and all they've done to slow cars down is put up 2 traffic lights and a luminous yellow sign. They haven't really changed the road design to make it safer to cross. They could've narrowed the road, put in bollards, a speed hump, extra road markings, built a bridge (with elevators) or an underpass for the cars, but no. Just traffic lights and a sign. Seems a bit of an afterthought if that's the main way in and out of the development.

The name “culdesac” is a bit ironic since culdesacs are notorious for making neighborhoods car dependent. My concern about these developments is they will make little isolated islands, probably to the benefit of some rent seeking corporation rather than an actual organic environment owned by people in the community and able to adapt to changing needs. I think we should be more focused on car optional neighborhoods that are pedestrian and bike friendly with public transportation. Both for new development and evolving existing neighborhoods.

That's so cool! Thanks for sharing)

I am a driver, I drive about 80 miles per day. But will avoid driving in the city if I can.. Which is hard where I live. I would like to live in a place like Culdesac. Sounds nice to safely walk or bike to a store. It would cut down a lot on traffic for the people who want to drive.

The developer and city deserve props. I hope it’s embraced by the community and becomes an example for others.

4:48 bruh the plug!!

Those stores won't get enough business from that small community to be sustainable, especially if the grocery store is pricey. Most residents will be at work most of the day, so the businesses will be empty. And since there's little foot traffic from outside the community, they'll go bust.

is it all rentals or are there any condos?

I'm a huge fan of urbanism and walkable cities but I don't know if I'd live in this specific development. It seems more catered to people wealthier than I am and the store thing is kind of discouraging. This is super exciting, though and I hope it starts a trend of dense walkable developments like it around the country. Love to see it❤

This seems like a cool place to live most of the year, but I worry about the lack of places to store cars owned by out of state visitors or residents that will want to take road trips out of state. My suggested solution: build a parking garage under this neighborhood

I most definitely would live in a car, free car light community if I found one in a different state than Arizona. Actually now I’m thinking of living overseas but wish that wasn’t the only option to try to live car light.

Looking at this, it reminds me of some university campuses. Which brings to mind, why aren't there any towns or neighborhoods designed similarly to university campus? Most are extremely walkable, have complete services, and contain housing and efficient transit options.

I wish my Tucson condo complex was designed like this

For a car-free neighborhood, I would like to visit Culdesac, Arizona not one day but for a year. I would like America to promote more cities like this, I don't want to say this but I've seen way to many fat people here in United States.

This is a nice start, close to near the Tempe city center and has the Valley Line station and one stop from the street car. That said, Tempe's city center has more density and shops but it's still looks pretty deserted, like a suburb that most of the inhabitants are somewhere else during the day. As for the place itself. First of all it's a block of apartments, not a neighborhood (unless you have different definitions) and it looks more like a mall as, just like a mall, it does offer a nice car free area for pedestrians but it's not natural but planned and controlled. The developers lease the apartments so no on owns places and they can control who lives there, what he can or cannot do and what kind of shops the residents have. Hopefully this will bring real car free and more pedestrian and bike friendly areas that are developed by the city and different people own/lease/rent apartments and different shops and other business can offer what they want with more choices for the residents and will enable more people to work there and not commute every day.

I love the idea, my only thing as someone that spent most of their lives in Arizona, especially east valley, is the fact that you need a car to get literally anywhere else in the state. It is great to live in a car free neighborhood and not have to drive every time you need something, but most people's work are a solid 20-30 miles away from where they live, if you want to roadtrip up north or go anywhere else in the state you need a car. I would have loved to live in this neighborhood, but it would have been virtually impossible for me because i did a lot of gig work that required me to drive everywhere in metro phoenix, and my family lived several hours away from phoenix, it just wouldn't work. I live in NYC now and love that I can walk everywhere but I feel trapped in the city too and would love to be able to have a car here just to have the freedom to go anywhere I wanted. So while I love the idea of the care free neighborhood I do think you need to have an offsite parking area for those that need to be able to leave the neighborhood.

I don't mean to be a downer in the comments as most seem positive on the Culdesac development. I love the idea, I've even been to the grocery store on site a couple of times. However, at this time in the Phoenix metro area, it just isn't feasible to not have a personal vehicle of your own (imo). I love the light rail more than most, but the frequencies here are quite bad and are pretty slow, it can take over half an hour just to get to Downtown Phoenix. Bus frequencies are even worse. While there are cars available to rent at Culdesac as far as I know, I don't view that as sufficient enough. It also seems that the people who would benefit most from a walkable neighborhood cannot afford to live here. I live care free in the area and though it isn't impossible, everyday tasks and trips take significantly more time, not to mention any extended trips within the Valley. I greatly appreciate your videos and enjoy them, I just wanted to share my perspective as someone living in the area car free.