This Neighborhood in America Banned All Cars, and Residents Say It’s Thriving
In a city built for cars, one neighbourhood is proving a different model can work.
Culdesac, a 17-acre community in Tempe, Arizona, bans private vehicles. When its first residents arrived in 2023, many doubted it could survive in metro Phoenix, a place infamous for sprawl and weak public transport. Yet the experiment has not only taken root, it is thriving.
The idea is to be “car free, but mobility rich,” explained Dan Parolek of Opticos Design, the firm behind Culdesac. The neighbourhood contains shops, restaurants, a dog park, coworking space, even a doctor’s office, so residents are only steps from many essentials. For everything else, a light rail stop sits just outside the gates, linking directly to downtown Phoenix and the airport. Residents also use Waymo’s driverless taxis, e-bikes from a local rental shop, or shared electric cars at $5 an hour.
That mix of options convinced postdoctoral researcher Caroline Murdock to move in while studying ocean sustainability at Arizona State University. “Being in Culdesac has taught me that I much prefer the concept of the 15-minute city,” she said. “I don’t want to have to get in my car to do everything.”
The environmental payoff is significant. Switching from cars to walking, cycling, and transit can cut personal emissions by up to 3.6 tonnes a year, according to the UN. Once Culdesac reaches its target of about 1,000 residents, the community could prevent 3,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.
Designers also focused on the brutal desert climate. Phoenix endured 143 days above 38C last year, but within Culdesac, researchers from Harvard University measured surface temperatures 17–22C cooler than surrounding pavements. The cooling effect comes from white-painted buildings, narrow shaded walkways, cross-ventilation in apartments, and the absence of asphalt parking lots.
Life inside is lively. About 21 small businesses operate within Culdesac, from a James Beard-nominated Mexican restaurant to a ceramics studio and sustainable clothing shop. Market days bring live music, baked goods, and handmade crafts. The absence of cars fosters chance encounters between neighbours and visitors, helping reduce the isolation that can come with suburban living. “It definitely feels more like a neighbourhood,” Murdock said.
Culdesac’s company plans to replicate the model elsewhere in the US. Erin Boyd, the firm’s external affairs lead, said the Tempe project “has shown that people do want to live car-free in the US, even in a metro area like Phoenix that’s often seen as the poster child for car dependency.”
For now, strolling the shaded walkways of Culdesac offers a glimpse of how cities might look if streets belonged not to cars, but to people.
