ASU study finds Americans' attitudes toward car-free living are changing
Culdesac Tempe is the nation’s first car-free apartment complex and currently has an occupancy rate of about 9%. ASU researchers found that 2% of U.S. car owners are interested in car-free living, and another 40% would consider it. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
Americans are famously dependent on their cars.
In fact, with 92%according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 of U.S. households owning at least one vehicle, the idea of living without them can seem unrealistic and even unimaginable.
But according to a recently released study by Arizona State University researchers, attitudes toward car-free living are changing, with nearly one-fifth (18%) of U.S. car owners expressing a definite interest in ditching their rides, and more than half being open to the idea.
The study was conducted by PhD candidate Nicole Corcoran, Deborah Salon, Hue-Tam Jamme and Rababe Saadaoui of ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, along with Jordyn Hitzeman, a 2025 graduate of ASU.
It was inspired by Culdesac Tempe, the newly built, car-free community located near the ASU campus.
“Members of our group had been working on research related to car use, car ownership and car dependence for years,” Corcoran said. “When Culdesac Tempe was announced as the first intentionally car-free community in the U.S., many people were skeptical.”
ASU News reached out to Salon and Corcoran to learn more about the results of the study and the future of car-free living in the U.S.
Note: Responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Question: What were the study’s most surprising findings?
Corcoran: The most unexpected finding was that a large fraction of car owners in the U.S. are actually interested in car-free living. We asked, “Would you ever consider living car-free, that is, not owning a car?” Nearly 20% of car owners answered, "Yes," to this question, and an additional 40% answered, “Maybe one day.”
Given the strength of car dependence in the U.S., we did not expect interest at that scale among current car owners. It was also a bit surprising that there was no clear demographic or geographic pattern in who was interested in going car-free.
Q: Would developers and city planners find the results equally surprising?
Salon: We’ve presented this work in multiple places to a variety of audiences. Some people are surprised by the level of interest in car-free living and the diversity of people who are interested in car-free living, as we were. Others think that our finding is intuitive, as cars are expensive and can be stressful to have to take care of — who wouldn’t want to live without that, if they could?
Everyone — including us — agrees that car-free living is simply not a viable option for most car owners in the U.S. today. So, despite our finding that many people are interested in not owning a car, most of them aren’t going to give up their cars anytime soon.
Q: Cars are such a big part of American life — so why do you think nearly 20% of respondents say they’d definitely consider living without a car?
Corcoran: It’s certainly true that cars are deeply embedded in American life, but that doesn’t mean people want to rely on them as much as they currently do. What our results suggest is a gap between what some people want and what is reasonable in America today. In other words, many Americans own cars not because they want to, but because our transportation infrastructure and built environment makes car ownership feel unavoidable.
To be clear, when nearly 20% of car owners say they would definitely be interested in living without a car, it does not mean they want to give up mobility. It means they would like to live in a context where they can reliably get where they need to go without having to own a car. If people had good mobility alternatives, a substantial share are willing to imagine, and potentially choose, a life with fewer or no cars in their garages and driveways.
These preferences for fewer cars would only be realized in neighborhoods that allowed for a good quality of life without car ownership — including a combination of jobs, shopping and other services near homes, safer and more convenient ways of getting around without cars, and also more access to ride hailing, short-term car rental or car-sharing services for those times when a car is really the best way to make a trip. For those who would prefer not to own a car, this setup could improve their quality of life while also reducing all the negatives associated with driving: air pollution, traffic congestion, crashes, etc.
Q. What demographic actually wants to live car-free in the U.S., and why is that surprising?
Salon: A common assumption is that Americans who want to live car-free are primarily young, urban or highly environmentally motivated. What we found instead is that interest in car-free living is broad. It cuts across income levels, educational backgrounds, ages, races and even neighborhood types. In fact, sociodemographic characteristics had little relationship with interest. This contrasts sharply with today’s zero-car households, which tend to be concentrated in urban areas and among low-income households.
A couple of things that did differ between those who were interested in car-free living and those who were not were past experience living car-free, current level of car dependence and how much people simply enjoyed driving cars. Importantly, people who had lived car-free in the past were more likely to be interested in car-free living in the future. This suggests that experience living car-free may lead to more car-free living in the future, creating a bit of cyclical effect.
The takeaway is that interest in car-free living is not a niche preference; lots of different types of people are actually interested in not owning a car.
Q: What do the results of the study say about the future of car-free living?
Corcoran: The results suggest that the future of car-free living in the U.S. has the potential to be bright! The car-free lifestyle may be less constrained by public willingness and more constrained by the lack of supply of supportive neighborhoods and developments. This lack of supply is, in part, due to some key structural policy barriers that govern what developers are allowed to build. Many of the rules that shape how cities are built simply assume that most people will own a car.
For example, local “minimum parking requirements” force developers to build a certain amount of parking for each bedroom or square foot of commercial space, which tends to keep homes, shops and offices farther apart because of all the parking lots. Additionally, in many cities it is difficult, if not impossible, to build housing and shops close to each other due to zoning laws. Policies like these lead to more driving — both because distances between things are farther and because they maintain plentiful and “free” parking.
Reforming these policies along with improving non-car transportation options could lead to real growth in car-free living.
Q: How could the results of the study impact future development?
Corcoran: It’s important to recognize that developers face some real policy hurdles when they try to build for car-free or car-light living. Getting around those rules can be complicated, time-consuming or simply not feasible. But many people don’t think it matters much because everyone owns cars anyway.
What our results help do is show that these policies may actually be holding back real demand for not owning cars in America. Easing parking requirements and allowing more flexible development could open the door to housing and mobility options that people already want. However, if you want to provide car-free housing, you must also provide viable non-car transportation options, such as access to transit, or simply place the development near goods and services.
More Local, national and global affairs
Olympic-themed event examines the long fight for equity in women's sport
Show up for the stories of sport, stay to learn about how they change the world — or how the world changes through sport.That is the promise of Arizona State University’s Great Game Lab, which…
Dialogues for Democracy kicks off spring with talk about midterm elections
Dialogues for Democracy, a nonpartisan speaker series featuring experts shaping U.S. politics, media and policymaking, is launching its spring 2026 lineup on Wednesday with a look at how the White…
ASU president frames democracy and higher education as 'unfinished work' in forward-looking address
With the stage lights up and the audience settled into their seats, Arizona State University President Michael M. Crow opened his Wednesday address at ASU Gammage not with policy prescriptions or…