Where I live

I live in Atascadero, California, its a relatively small town that stretches parallel with 9 exits of the 101 in California, but that is about the majority of the town and does not stretch too far off from there. It is part of San Luis Obispo County population of approximately two hundred and fifty thousand, where there have been significant green initiatives, it was also one of the first counties in the US to ban smoking in bar and has always been in a way ahead of its time. The County has made for several designated Park and Ride areas to promote carpooling amongst people who have to travel for work, like myself and my coworkers who has a forty-five mile drive into work, we carpool into work with groups of as big as five people carpooling together. Carpooling saves gas, saves money, protects your vehicles, and keeps two to four more cars off the road for the drive into work. We also pride ourselves in our farmers markets which occur every night of the week in different parts of the county which minimize food miles for the traveling and promote healthier citizens. The San Luis Obispo world famous farmers market is actually very bike friendly, the roads in the county have been modified to be more bike friendly, and the farmers markets all have bike valets to promote the initiative for bike traveling.

Copenhagen, Denmark

I want to compare my situation to the situation in Copenhagen. Their urban planning parallels some of the things that San Luis Obispo County and Atascadero have done in the last two decades to promote healthier lifestyles. The biking initiative and more bike friendly roads has made commute in San Luis and the surrounding towns very accessible and made it easier for college students at Cal Poly to commute as well as anyone living in the area and working in their respective cities. The really big difference in the respective initiatives is the population density, the density of the area is at its highest near the county, but is fairly dispersed around the county because of the rural nature of the county. The bike initiatives have like in Copenhagen, created more social spaces and pushed towards a more social community. Though it has not been as fully adopted as the community in Copenhagen it is a step forward in the right direction.

Bogota Colombia

I think the largest takeaway from the Bogota Colombia urban planning is to take away the importance of what kind of impacts better public transportation and infrastructure can have on the population and the environment. While where I live does not have nearly the population density that Bogota has, I believe that there can be an argument to be made for the increase in public transportation. The county I live in has four major towns, Atascadero, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, and Paso Robles, though they are connected by the bus system. I believe that something like the train system in Bogota that traveled throughout the county would keep even more cars off the roads. I believe the bus system is under utilized because they are significantly less reliable to than a train system, and poorly maintained, perhaps if the bus system were expanded and better maintained it would be used more, but I believe there is a stigma people inherently place on a bus service vice a subway or train service. I know that when I buy train tickets to travel the coast I ensure that I avoid any train services that do not cross connect with bus services.

Heres a link looking at how San Luis Obispo County was promoting tougher smoking bans as far back as 1990.

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-02/news/mn-1350_1_san-luis-obispo-support