I am from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, a suburban town roughly 40 minutes outside of Philadelphia. If I were to classify Doylestown as one of the categories from the module, I would call it a streetcar suburb. While there are sidewalks aligning the town and surrounding neighborhoods, driving a car is the social norm to get from one point to another. My neighborhood is about a 15 minute car ride into downtown Doylestown, so walking would not be an option due to distance. The population of Doylestown is 8,337. While there are buses that run from Doylestown to Philadelphia, these options are not widely used. I have enjoyed growing up in Doylestown, but never critically thought about the amount of dependency I have on my car. Doylestown itself is very pedestrian friendly, but in order to get downtown I need my car, which is counterintuitive.

A city I have chosen to discuss is New York City. New York is about 80 miles North of Doylestown, and I have a lot of family members who live there currently. None of those family members have a car. In contrast to Doylestown, New York City is very pedestrian friendly, and relies heavily on mass transit. My cousin takes the subway every morning to get to work, completely eliminating the need for a car. When looking at New York City’s streets on a map, they literally look like a grid. The urban planning in New York’s case is very practical in its straight and parallel streets. Every form of dining, entertainment, shopping, or work, is easily accessible by foot or by mass transit. This is different from Doylestown in that all of Doylestown’s local hotspots are accessible through car. It would be more sustainable for Doylestown to become more pedestrian friendly and less reliant on cars.

The second city I have chosen is Copenhagen. Copenhagen’s unique social norm of cycling is something Doylestown should strive towards. Riding bicycles has become a part of this city’s culture. In Doylestown, if I wanted to ride a bike somewhere I would have to be mindful of cars potentially hurting me. Recently, however, Doylestown has been adding more bike paths. In my neighborhood in particular, a new bike path was added last year. People are often seen walking their dogs and riding their bikes along this path. In my opinion, biking is a very pleasant mode of transportation, and something I would take advantage of if there were more bike paths. I think Doylestown’s dependency on cars could be reduced if there were options to safely ride bikes. By adding more bike paths, the environment would benefit along with the health of Doylestown’s residents.