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Transportation is only half the battle - city planning is the other half.

Metro subway and rail is great, and the network of rail is expanding rapidly, so the perfect transportation alternative is going to be available to many of us soon (especially for those of us who don't love to take the bus).

But there's a huge problem. We don't live, work or play next to the metro rail! At least 99% of us don't if we're not in downtown. Driving to a rail station really destroys the entire point of taking public transit for most of us, so...

We need much higher density development next to the rail stations. Everywhere within a mile of most of these metro subway and light rail stops needs to be rezoned to allow very high density! This would allow a lot of new development which would create the homes, offices and shops by rail which we need in order to be able to get around to most places without a car. This will allow us to - for the first time - become 1 or 0 car households.

There would be high density clusters around each subway/rail stop, and then beyond that will be the old, low density neighborhood. This will allow most of the city to remain single family homes, and undisturbed. It will also allow a massive amount of new housing and commercial to be built, all connected by rail. This would take a lot of pressure off of expanding the city into distant suburbs, and create an urban environment that is missing in our city. Each area with rail would have a hub around the station that draws in the people of neighboring areas.

It's a crime that within 2 blocks of most of the metro rail stations you can find single family homes. We've spent hundreds of millions building these stations and there need to be many households enjoying the rail proximity, not one.

*BTW - "high density development" doesn't mean 2 or 4 story buildings, it means 20 or 40 stories.