My hometown is Little Silver, NJ. This is a small town located on the eastern edge of Monmouth County, and is about 5 miles from the coast and 50 miles south of Manhattan. The town is made up mostly of individual neighborhoods, with a central downtown area. There is a train station in town that is part of the NJ Transit line. As of the 2010 census the population is 5,950. With 2.7 square miles of land, the town itself is physically small. Most people drive in general, although many people do bike or walk when heading to a local destination. There are a couple local parks which are popular destinations, as well as the train station, which is most popular with those who commute from New York City for work. I personally feel connected to this town because I grew up there and went to school in town for many years.

One city I choose to compare my hometown to is Rochester, NY. Both towns are examples of automobile suburbs. For example, there are quite a few streets in my town that do not have sidewalks (mine included). While there are sidewalks in the downtown area, the town itself is designed to encourage automobile travel. Also similar to Rochester is the fact that my town includes a number of neighborhoods that feature a variety of appearances. These two features could be changed to make Little Silver more sustainable. For example, more sidewalks could be implemented. This could be effective in my town because the land area itself is quite small at 2.7 square miles. Better sidewalks or paths between individual neighborhoods could encourage more foot traffic and increase land available for gardens and planting. Further, future neighborhoods could be designed from the ground up to encourage more sustainable activities, such as public gardens and less automotive traffic/travel.

One interesting city to compare to my hometown is Copenhagen, as this city has a very high cycling population. I feel that my town, as well as most other automotive suburbs, could be transformed into cycling towns and cities quite easily. There is a lot that can be learned from Copenhagen’s practices, especially urban design concepts and the influencing of traffic laws to accommodate safe cycling. Car free streets would be extremely helpful, and would be useful for children as well. There are a lot of children in Little Silver and a few schools as well; making safe walking or cycling paths could be beneficial for these children in a number of ways. Slow-speed zones would not be quite as effective in my town as the speed limits are low already,