Balk: Car ownership keeps dropping in Seattle
Most Seattleites who went car-free did so in much less dramatic fashion than this Tesla Cybertruck fire. Image from a Seattle traffic camera.About 74,000 households in Seattle are car-free, making up more than 20% of all Seattle households. A modern high point for the city's car-free household rate, Seattle now ranks 9th among large U.S. cities by car-free household rate and 2nd for large U.S. cities west of the Mississippi behind only San Francisco, the Seattle Times' Gene Balk reported recently.
It seems that Balk's 2021 analysis that Seattle had reached peak car" has so far held true. The city's population has continued to grow, but the number of cars owned or leased by Seattle residents has remained largely unchanged since 2017. About one in three people cannot drive, but the data suggests that many others are choosing not to drive or can no longer afford to own and operate a car in Seattle. For the past eight years, for every new Seattle household that brought a car, another household got rid of theirs. Many new residents don't even bother trying to bring a car with them.
Renters lead the way with 1 in 3 rental households having no cars, a strong data point to support easing or eliminating expensive parking requirements for new housing developments. By contrast, only 5% of owned households were car-free, though homeowners have been ditching their cars, too. These figures don't even include dorms, nursing homes or other facilities designated as group quarters," so all the numbers cited are undercounts since dorm rooms and nursing home units are likely to have extremely low car ownership rates.
The data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's household survey, so there is some statistical noise especially at the census tract level. However, the data does reveal larger patterns and trends. The car-free households tend to be concentrated in dense neighborhoods with quality transit service like Capitol Hill, downtown and especially the U District and the International District. About 70% of households in the ID have no cars, and the U District registers a similar rate even without including dorms. Wealthier low-density areas with water views had the lowest car-free rates, sometimes dipping below 2%. Arbor Heights near the southern border of West Seattle registered an improbable 0%.
Understanding the rise in car-free households helps explain some of the misconceptions about Seattle transportation. People who live in lower-density neighborhoods, especially ones with water views, may get the impression that everyone in Seattle has access to a car because that's mostly true where they are. But the city is changing, and for more and more people a car is more hassle than benefit if they can afford one at all.
The recent Tesla protests may also present an interesting opportunity for Seattle's many Musk-hating Tesla owners who are now looking to sell their cars. Take the no-car challenge! Sell your Tesla, but don't immediately buy a replacement. Try going a month walking, biking and/or taking transit. You may surprise yourself. Perhaps this deserves a post of its own.
Most the cities ahead of Seattle on the list are east coast and midwest cities with quality transit service. While there are certainly lessons Seattle can learn from places like New York and Washington DC, the city may also need to look internationally for guidance on how to continue adding residents without adding cars and how to better serve those car-free households at all times of day and for all kinds of trips. Too many of Seattle's transit lines end service early, for example, and many of our major trails have no lighting at night for people walking and biking there. Places that are serious about car-free living make sure car-free options are available for all (or at nearly all) of life's journeys.
King County Metro's Trailhead Direct program is a fantastic demonstration of the potential in adventure transit, helping to reduce the need to use a car to go hiking or bikepacking. We need so many more services (public and private) that provide car-free ways to connect to outdoor activities.
Expanding rural transit across the state will not only provide service to people who live in those communities, but it will also help the increasing number of car-free residents access more places. It's difficult to think of an investment that would do a better job of connecting Washington communities than rural transit.