Letter: The No-Car City

By
The New York Times
Published: Nov 30, 2008

To the Editor: Your “36 Hours” column about Santa Barbara (Nov. 16) missed one of Santa Barbara’s best attributes. Santa Barbara is the rare small American city that is easy and pleasant to visit without a car.

In fact, Santa Barbara is the even rarer city that encourages and rewards visitors without a car. You can get to Santa Barbara on Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, which runs five trains a day from Los Angeles (most trains also serve San Diego).

True to its name, the Surfliner runs directly next to the coast on much of its route. (Santa Barbara also has a Greyhound bus station immediately next to a Saks Fifth Avenue store on State Street.).

Once you’re in Santa Barbara, most destinations are within walking or biking distance, or you can ride the electric shuttle buses on State Street downtown and along the waterfront.

More information is available at www.santabarbaracarfree.org.

Nathan Landau Berkeley, Calif.

© The New York Times. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in The New York Times.