In Tempe, Arizona, Culdesac is reimagining US cities for people, not cars – and inviting travellers to explore its plazas, paseos and Mediterranean-inspired design.

When Sheryl Murdock walks to her apartment in Culdesac – the US' first modern car-free neighbourhood built from scratch – she feels transported to a Mediterranean island. As she enters the central plaza, which serves as an al fresco communal living room, the blare of traffic fades, replaced by the clink of glasses, the hum of conversation and the thump of a cornhole game. She meanders down narrow pathways between low-slung white buildings crisscrossed with fairy lights, passing pops of colour from cheerful murals and magenta bougainvillea. Although she's in Arizona, Murdock says, "It's like being in Greece."

Architect Daniel Parolek did have the Mediterranean in mind when he designed Culdesac, though he was influenced more by his travels to the hill towns and coastal villages of Italy and France. Travellers and locals love these settings, Parolek says, because "these are places that were built prior to the automobile, so they were designed around accommodating people". Why then, he asks, do people have to vacation to places like these rather than living in them?

The answer is that societies made a Faustian deal with the automobile. As urban planners calibrated the built environment to the needs of cars rather than people, cities spread out into vast systems of traffic-clogged asphalt that disgorge solo commuters into soul-crushingly monotonous suburbs. Car-centric design has contributed to making metropolises more polluted, more socially isolating, less sustainable and hot as hell.

But the collective consciousness is shifting. Research is revealing that walkable cities make people happier, less lonely, more satisfied with life and physically healthier. Movements are afoot around the globe toward sustainable urbanism, slow travel and 15-minute (or less) cities – such as Nordhavn in Copenhagen and superblocks in Barcelona. For travellers, strolling around Culdesac's shops, restaurants and outdoor markets offers a glimpse into a future where cities are once again built for people, not traffic.

Culdesac is an especially bold experiment because of its unlikely location: Tempe, a suburb within greater Phoenix, Arizona. This sprawling metropolitan area is cursed with an inadequate public transportation system, which means residents practically need to own a car to get around. So, when Culdesac's first residents arrived in 2023, many sceptics wondered how a neighbourhood that doesn't permit private vehicles could survive in such a car-dependent place.

The key is to be "car free, but mobility rich", says Parolek. The 17-acre mixed-use neighbourhood comes complete with eateries, shops, a Korean convenience store, a doctor's office, a dog park, a pool, a gym and a coworking space – meaning locals are steps away from many amenities.

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