I wrote this post after taking a brief trip with my fiancé to downtown Washington, D.C. to retrieve something from her parents’ condo. How long was “brief?” It was only about five miles as the bird flies from our apartment, but because neither of us has a car (and more importantly, refuse to drive in D.C. traffic), it took about 90 minutes.
Before you ask, no, we didn’t walk the whole way. D.C. has one of the best metro systems in the U.S. You can get anywhere in the urban core within 20 minutes or so on the metro, and most trips between stations are shorter.
If you frequent urbanist spaces on the internet, they’ll tell you that places with rail transit, like D.C. and New York are the urban ideal in the United States. They make car-free life just as convenient as having a car. I used to believe this, but now I’m skeptical.
What’s lost on people who just look at comprehensive metro maps on the internet is that there’s usually a 10 minute walk to the metro station, a wait at the station, then your train ride, and then another 10 minute walk. Our train was only about 15 minutes maximum between stops, but our trip was something like 35 to 45 minutes, each way, from door to door. I call that extra 20 minutes “the buffer problem.”
When you’re new to D.C. and rail transit, the buffer problem is acceptable. You’re saving money by not driving and there’s something magical about the novelty of good public transit. But after a few years, it wears on you. I have been sick of the buffer problem for over a year.
You’d think the solution is to bite the bullet and buy a car or uber more, but those costs add up quickly on top of sky-high rents. What’s more, D.C. car traffic isn’t much better than the metro trip. Having made that Uber trip multiple times, the 90 minute trip would have taken 50 minutes. Again: For less than five miles travel!
The problem I have with DC is not the density or transit infrastructure, but the fact that it takes at least 20 minutes on the low end to go anywhere, no matter the transportation you use. America’s cities are great, but suburban and rural areas with their car dependence are underrated. In South Carolina where I grew up, the round-trip would have taken no more than 20 minutes total.
The YIMBYs are correct in diagnosing the cause of these problems, but there’s a reality that’s swept under the rug: American cities aren’t just bad for pedestrians because of car-centric infrastructure, but because it takes forever to go more than a few miles, no matter how you travel.
Cost of living is a major reason people move out of cities, but the buffer problem is probably another underrated reason. It’s why my fiancé and I are considering moving ourselves somedays.