Shopping Carts and Urban Living

As recently reported at TheCityFix.com, a site about sustainable urban mobility, the Sydney, Australia city council recently denied an urban supermarket the ability to provide it's customers with shopping carts (or as they call them: trolleys).

From this article from down under, the city council "...approved a development application last September for a small local supermarket with no trolleys, but six months later the developer wanted to change it to include trolleys." The city council denied this request and the market will remain trolley-free. Apparently part of what the city council was aiming for when they approved this urban supermarket was to provide a place to shop for city dwellers without increasing the amount of automobile traffic in the already congested area. Similar to how markets used to work in cities before cars, I believe the idea was that people would make a quick stop by the local market on foot a few times a week to pick up the goods they needed for just the next few days. Here's a quote from article:

"Labor councillor Dr Meredith Burgmann says the decision was based on maintaining traffic levels in the area.

She says she has never received so many emails and letters from residents concerned about the impact of trolleys.

"It does have to remain a local drop-in-as-you're-walking-along-the-street supermarket," she said."

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported on this, prior to the city council's decision upholding the trolley ban:

"The Friends of Erskineville [the village where the supermarket is] warns that trolleys are a gateway conveyance that will hook shoppers on the car habit. ''Without wanting to sound like the League of Gentlemen, no trolleys restricts the amount of people who will drive so it's only local people, on foot, not people driving to the site,'' the group's spokesman, Brett Mason, said."

These Friends of Erskineville seem to be a pretty dedicated bunch of individuals, interested in promoting livability and sustainability in their own neighborhood. The stance against shopping carts is rather interesting and I'm not sure if this issue has ever been discussed in America. I'm not advocating that shopping carts be banned or the use of them curtailed, but it's worthwhile to think about the connection between our current infrastructure and our lifestyle. Banning shopping carts at the IGA in Erskineville is a small act, but it is a solution that make sense and seems to be popular with the people it affects on a daily basis.

Out of Town: Pittsburgh

For the first edition of this new series, aptly called "Out of Town," I have chosen to shine a light upon the city of Pittsburgh. Located in the fine state of Pennsylvania at the confluence of some hard to pronounce rivers and the start of the Ohio River, Pittsburgh makes my list of most scenic cities in the country. I have never been there, but have always enjoyed pictures of the area and reading about the city's progress.

The city has a strong 'green' reputation, which is no small feat considering it rose to prominence as an industrial hub (notably steel) full of polluted rivers and smog. It is hosting a G-20 economic summit later this month which will put the city on the world stage for a few days. This website, aptly called Pittsburgh Green Story, chronicles the "...remarkable story of one of America’s oldest industrial cities. Pittsburgh, once declared "hell with the lid taken off," has undergone one of the most dramatic environmental transformations in American history and is now one of the greenest cities in the nation."

In addition to the overall green vibe, the city appears to have a pretty dense downtown and surrounding pre-war suburbs which make it a good place to explore without a car. There are not a lot of large American cities where you can literally start a hiking expedition from downtown.

That leads me to a selection of blogs and/or websites that have similar aspirations and mindsets to mine. (which is the basis of the 'out of town' series by the way)

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UrbanHike.Org

"Urban Hike is an informal, monthly-or-so walking tour of the Pittsburgh area. We learn a little history, take in some strange and beautiful sights, get some exercise, and wrap it all up with some delectable local cuisine."

The other day I was thinking that I would like to take up hiking, but to get to some mountainous terrain near Portland without a car proved to be a challenge. By the time I walk/bike/run to a mountain I would be to tired to do any hiking. Pittsburgh's urban hike group looks like some good wholesome fun and their website is very well done.

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Bike Pittsburgh
http://bike-pgh.org/

This is another great looking site. In addition to car-free Fridays and Bikefest, they seem to do a ton of advocacy on local biking issues, have a busy community calendar, and feature some very slick looking bicycle maps. Pittsburgh is a hilly city, and I am sure that riding your bike there is not only convenient but a great workout.

"Bike Pittsburgh is committed to making Pittsburgh increasingly safe, accessible, and friendly to bicycle transportation. The work we do is at the heart of urban environmentalism - raising awareness about oil dependency, pollution, congestion, safe streets, good urban design, and public health. We are partnering with local stakeholders to improve our streets, bridges, and trails in order to make riding to work, shopping, and exercising by bicycle safe and fun for everyone in Pittsburgh. "

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East Busway Blog
http://buswayblog.blogspot.com/

And last but not least, this blog provides some good insights into current transportation issues relating to the city. An interesting tidbit I learned about the author is that they currently commute via car to their job but look forward to the day that they would be able to have a viable public transportation option for their workplace or to live and work in a more mass-transit friendly environment. A snippet from the aforementioned post:

"My goal is to at some point take a job in Pittsburgh that is more commuter friendly. For now I am stuck. Even if I wanted to move to a location closer to work, where I could take public transportation, I would have to get in my car anyway to run errands because the area is so rural.What's my point? Plan development intelligently. The office park I work in was created for people to drive to individually, access to public transit was not even an afterthought, it was NEVER considered. Now we're paying. From a completely practical perspective, gas won't be cheap forever (thank god my car is fuel efficient). At some point $50.00 a tank for a small car will become the norm again. This is not to mention the other effects (the least of which not being my sanity)."

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So there you have it, some interesting stuff out of Pittsburgh. I very much hope to visit someday. What town should be next?