For all the social media debate about walkable cities and cities like New York and Paris enacting measures to reduce the number of cars polluting the streets, one small town in Arizona stands as a shining beacon of what the United States could look like if it weren’t so car-obsessed.
In Phoenix, like in too many American cities, cars are a necessity. Communities are inefficiently scattered across the land, with few public transit options connecting them. The concept of walkability is almost laughable.
Yet, Culdesac, a 17-acre Mediterranean-inspired neighborhood in Tempe, Arizona, a part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, is the first intentionally car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the U.S.
According to a BBC report, Culdesac resembles someone airlifting a Greek village into the Sonoran Desert. Pedestrians stroll under fairy lights. It’s a place where you can hear yourself think or stop to have a chat with your neighbors as you cross paths on foot or bike without the obnoxious din of traffic drowning it out.
This Small Arizona Community Ditched Cars and Got Way More Social
Architect Daniel Parolek designed Culdesac. He wasn’t explicitly trying to model it after Greece. Still, rather the coastal villages and towns of Italy and France, or as he puts it, “places that were built before the automobile, so they were designed around accommodating people.” He then wondered why people can only ever vacation in these places. Why can’t they live in them, too?
So, he built one. And he made it functional, not just aesthetic. Culdesac features apartments, shops, restaurants, a dog park, a pool, coworking spaces, and a Korean bodega, all within walking distance. You don’t need a car. It’s a town designed for you not even to want one.
The secret sauce is to be “car-free, but mobility-rich,” as Parolek describes it.. Residents get access to light rail, shared electric cars, robotaxis, and rentable e-bikes. A grad student at ASU can be at work in 10 minutes without ever touching a steering wheel.
And in a city that suffered through 143 days over 100°F last year, Culdesac is also cooler. Whitewashed buildings reflect heat, narrow walkways trap shade and breeze, and the absence of hot blacktop means surface temps are up to 40°F lower than the surrounding area. There’s no magic trick here.
There is no real secret to success other than innovative, smart urban planning practices that many new developments around the United States can’t or outright refuse to implement.
The BBC describes it as a town where people actually get to see each other in person and regularly; a place where every shop and every market has the potential to be a hangout, a spot for a chill conversation, or an impromptu party.
Despite its name conjuring images of dead ends, in practice, it’s a wide-open community that brings people together.
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