It almost seems a heresy to say. But it's true, that right here in the land of the automobile and legendary drives like US Highway 1, where hot rods were born and where driverless cars are being designed, California actually has a car-free side. It's not so surprising though because as you get familiar with the Golden State, one constant you will always find is that it is a place that is constantly reinventing itself and open to new ideas. Like freeing urban environments from gridlock, minimizing carbon footprints and getting locals and visitors more in touch with their communities by getting them out of cars and into other modes of public transportation, like bicycles and good old walking. Here's a statewide overview that will put you in touch with all the most recent developments that are transforming California into a car-free paradise. 

Southern California 
LA and cars go together like Hollywood and Vine. It's hard to think of another city on the planet as identified with car culture as is Los Angeles. Yet it's here alongside the miles of freeways that one of the greatest car-free evolutions in the US is taking place. Everyone from the mayor's office to neighborhood groups are doing their part to make sure that when it comes to car-free, the City of Angels is not left behind. Some of the new initiatives include more than 120 miles of new bikeways introduced over the last few years, increased levels of Metro transit options and the ongoing success of the hugely popular CicLAvia - the nation's largest open streets event  where the streets of Los Angeles are handed over to pedestrians and pedal-pushers for four Sundays each year in neighborhoods across the city. 

Los Angeles Tourism is also taking a leading role in redefining how visitors and locals can move around the city sans cars thanks to a series of 12 free self-guided itineraries that are part of their “Car Free LA” initiative. Encompassing themes like “Discover Downtown” and “Multicultural LA” the guides are available online atDiscover Los Angeles and include routes by bike, Metro and even walking (don't let the Eighties song “Nobody Walks in LA” fool you). Speaking of Metro, the LA region's bus, subway and light rail operator, lines continue to be expanded, including the new Purple Line to West LA, ensuring that the area will continue to expand its car-free options across the LA basin. 

Guided car-free options are also available through companies such as Bikes & Hikes LA and Malibu Discovery which offer people-powered tours everywhere from Malibu to Griffith Park. And if you want to pair a workout with the chance to see some of the city's best street art, connect with @BlacklistLA, a group that runs the city Monday nights exploring the top street art sites. A self-guided itinerary curated by BlackList founder Erik Valiente is also available from the Discover LA site. 

Farther south in San Diego, plenty of sunshine and an active lifestyle lend themselves naturally to all manner of car-free options. If you're the sporty type, lucky you, your options are almost endless and stretch from cruising the boardwalk on a rental beachcruiser to taking in the sights on the sand in areas like Mission and Pacific Beaches to getting air and mastering the single tracks on the 42 miles of trails that make up Mission Trails Park in East County. One of the easiest ways to get on two wheels here is the newly launchedDecoBike bikeshare program. A truly green machine, nearly 1,800 of these custom, all-aluminum and stainless steel bikes are available around the city at dozens of solar powered stations where you can check out your ride with the swipe of a credit card or membership card. 

Another great way to cycle the city and see some areas not always accessible by car include exploring the 27 miles of paved paths circling Mission Bay. Options here include the Mission Bay Bike Route and Ocean Beach Bike Path. If you've got an adventurous spirit, you'll find the best seat in the house to get stellar views of San Diego Bay and Coronado is a bicycle seat when you ride the Bayshore Bikeway. This 25-mile circuit skirts the Bay and can take you from Embarcadero in downtown San Diego all the way to the community of Imperial Beach before looping back up to Coronado. Throw in a ferry ride to cross back to downtown and you have a great San Diego adventure. Speaking of the Coronado Ferry, it makes for an excellent stand-alone adventure and is the most-see-worthy way to get to Coronado. Regularly scheduled service runs daily from the Broadway Pier and Convention Center to the Coronado Ferry Landing. Expect Instagram-worthy views of the Coronado Bay Bridge and Downtown Skyline. 

Besides San Diego's amazing opportunities to go car-free by bike, the city also takes civic pride in its public transportation options like its train and trolley systems. For getting around town with San Diego flair, the famous Red Trolley is the way to roll. The San Diego Trolley can get you all across America's Finest City via its three lines that service Downtown and nearby points of interest including Old Town and Mission Valley. You can also take a trip back in time while simultaneously exploring the latest and greatest in downtown San Diego by catching a ride on the Vintage Trolley Silver Line which travels a loop on a limited schedule Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends. If a day-trip to Mexico is in your plans, the Blue Line will take you right to the International Border. If your explorations go beyond the city, Amtrak provides easy access from the historic Santa Fe Depot located near Little Italy to North County spots like Solana Beach and beyond with itsPacific Surfliner service. The Santa Fe Depot is also where you can catch Coaster and Sprinter light rail trains that connect to coastal and inland communities including Encinitas and San Marcos. 

Central California 
The beaches, vineyards and sun-soaked towns of California's Central Coast are also havens for car-free exploration. Like points south such as Los Angeles and San Diego, Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner is your hot ticket for a car-less arrival. The coastal scenery is spectacular and if you're an active traveler, special bicycle and surfboard racks ensure a sporty stay wherever you're headed. Amtrak's coastal route connects both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, the final stop of the Surfliner route. 

The red-tiled roofs and swaying palms of Santa Barbara set the stage for countless car-free adventures, so your biggest challenge will be on deciding where to start. One of the first things you'll notice here is that Santa Barbara is an extremely bike-friendly town, with miles of paths and routes connecting you to popular attractions like Santa Barbara Mission and the Urban Wine Trail. The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition is a great resource for all things bike related, including free itineraries complete with route sheets and maps like the Channel Drive Bike Ride. Bike tours beyond the city limits are a great way to experience some of the area's stellar sites and attractions including single day tours of the celebrated Santa Barbara wine country with companies like Santa Barbara Adventure Company. If something more challenging than picnics and pinot noir is your speed, other options include advanced mountain bike tours in surrounding areas such as Montecito and Goleta with Santa Barbara Fitness Tours. 

When all is said and done though, no car-free visit to Santa Barbara is complete without cruising the beachside bike path that fronts Chase Palm Park. The golden stretch of sand, swaying palms and people parade is a slice of Santa Barbara that cannot be missed. Hourly bike rentals are plentiful here on Cabrillo Boulevard. 

But don't feel you have to ride a bike to enjoy the city. With Santa Barbara's galleries, boutiques, cafes and historic sites, it's hard to imagine a more welcoming walking city. In fact, Santa Barbara was named a Gold Level Community by the Walk Friendly Communities organization. Easy-to-follow self-guided itineraries like the Red Tile walking tour exploring historic sites and the Santa Barbara Paseos route exploring hidden walkways can be downloaded from resources like the Santa Barbara Car Free Project. 

Another way to wheel around town here with no carbon footprint is hitching a ride on the Santa Barbara MTD's Waterfront/Downtown electric shuttle. Just 50 cents, it will get you to some of Santa Barbara's most popular destinations and attractions, including the Santa Barbara Zoo, State Street, Cabrillo Blvd. and Stearns Wharf. 

It shouldn't come as a surprise that in a city and county with the acronym of SLO, you are entering a car-free haven. Here in San Luis Obispo, you'll find no shortage of adventures and attractions easily accessible even if you're taking a vacation from your car. Keeping with the SLO theme, it's virtually impossible to run out of walks and hikes available here. In particular, Downtown San Luis Obispo is a walker's delight, filled with architectural gems including a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building and the historic Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, all paired with a welcoming ambiance that has earned the city national accolades. 

Since you're in the heart of Central Coast wine country, you would be remiss in not partaking of local pours. With its multiple tasting rooms, exploring downtown by foot is a great way to sample some of the best sips in the county without having to get behind the wheel. Local companies such as Central Coast Food Tours offer the opportunity to explore off-the-beaten finds including restaurants and tasting rooms. If you want to kick it up a notch, running trails here offer not only a fantastic range of challenges from easy-peasy to marathoner-only, but often provide fantastic vistas to boot. A few examples include Montana de Oro State Park with its miles of trails and ocean views and the popular creek-side run at the Bob Jones Trail in Avila Beach. A known foodie town, SLO even pairs its stellar SAVOR the Central Coast event with a SAVOR Run that features a 5K or 10K walk/run followed by a gourmet pancake breakfast. Talk about carbo-loading in style. 

If you're a two-wheeler, you'll find no end of diversions either. From single tracks in nearby state parks to wine country cruises, attractions abound. A couple of self-guided itineraries to definitely consider for your zero-emission rides include a historical downtown bike tour (easy) and a wine country tour of the lush Edna Valley (just mind the sips). For more rides and maps, check out the SLO County Bicycle Coalition, or check in with operators such as Central Coast Outdoors for guided rides. 

Public transportation is both convenient and abundant here too, with options including SLO Transit and RTA buses which offer free transfer passes when you purchase a ticket with Amtrak. The Old SLO Trolley is another convenient and classic way to get around town. Year-round, it's the ideal wheels to get you to the Downtown Farmers Market every Thursday night and during the warmer months, the trolley runs to downtown on Fridays and Saturdays. 

Northern California
LA may be where the car still reigns as king, but only in San Francisco can you ride on a National Historic Landmark. Since 1873, the city has flexed its car-free cred with its storied cable cars, the much-loved antique street trolleys that are the world's last permanently operating manual cable car system. Three cable lines criss-cross the city taking you to every see-worthy site in SF including neighborhoods like Nob Hill and North Beach. More information can be found at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency website. 

But the wheels keep turning here in the Bay Area and the last decade or so has seen another mode of transportation become a local icon here as well. San Francisco has wholeheartedly adopted a bicycle culture that thrives in the city's compact urban environment. Organizations such as the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition connect folks to spokes in myriad ways including adult, youth and family bike lessons, city bike maps and walking guides (including topo maps so you can avoid those legendary hills), mapping tools to create your own routes and insider info on how to combine your bike ride with public transit systems like BART and the Muni bus system. 

Other ways to enjoy San Francisco's bike culture include pedaling the paths of Golden Gate Park to enjoy scenic attractions like the Japanese Tea Garden, especially on Sundays when the park is closed to vehicle traffic. Sundays are also a bike bell-ringer for another reason: the city's Sunday Streets program, which runs from March until October, closes streets to vehicle traffic for eight Sundays in different neighborhoods such as The Mission and Tenderloin areas, allowing cyclists to share the streets with rollerbladers, pedestrians, open-air yoga classes and kids' programs. Making it easy to enjoy any of the above, San Francisco has also instituted a new bikeshare program, Bay Area BikeShare, offering annual, monthly, 3-day and daily memberships. Just visit one of the solar-powered kiosks spread around the city, swipe your card and get rolling. 

If running and walking are your thing, San Francisco has you covered too with an incredible array of walkable neighborhoods ready to be explored on foot. From strolling by the row of vibrant Victorians known as the Painted Ladies alongside Alamo Square Park to the hip storefronts in the Mission district, both self-guided routes as well as guided tours can get you to some of the city's most memorable locations thanks to resources like the architectural tours offered by My Favorite City tours. Being the foodie town it is, you'll even find walking tours focused on discovering neighborhood purveyors of authentic cuisine like the ones offered bySidewalk Food Tours of San Francisco. More of an adrenaline junkie? Step it up with a scenic city running tour like the ones offered by Peek. 

Across the bay in Oakland and Berkeley, Open Streets Sundays are also part of the mix, with both cities asking locals and visitors to leave the car in the garage for a day to enjoy new activities and feel the pulse of the city. In Oakland, Oaklavia is a city-wide celebration that connects community organizations, business owners, entertainers, locals and visitors who can ride, walk, blade and celebrate freely in select neighborhoods including North Oakland and Lake Merritt. Sunday Streets Berkeley turns Shattuck Avenue into a playful venue where you're encouraged to cycle, stroll, dance and discover this colorful East Bay neighborhood near UC Berkeley. 

The East Bay's thriving bike culture has also spawned some great resources and sub-cultures like Spokeland (classes, clinics, parts, events) and Oakland's scraper bike culture, where inner city young people take found objects and transform their bikes into highly stylized green machines. 

Serving the entire Bay Area, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) traverses everywhere from points east like Walnut Creek to the heart of San Francisco – even going under the bay for a chunnel-like experience – to ensure you can cover virtually the entire region without ever getting in a car. BART also connects with both the San Francisco International airport (SFO) and Oakland International Airport (OAK) for ease and convenience. 

It's only natural that Sacramento, the state capital of green-friendly California, would also have a wealth of car-free activities. Just take a look around the Capitol Mall and you'll see an army of commuters pedaling their way to meetings, lunch stops and commuter trains to get back home. The city even devotes the entire month of May to two-wheel transportation. Its May Is Bike Month program encourages everyone to saddle up as they ride bikes to minimize congestion, reduce their carbon footprint and of course get some exercise. The companion website is filled with information about how to join bike miles challenges, participate in local events and plan routes so you can keep rolling here all year long. Another great source for enjoying the area in car-free style is utilizing 511, an app and web resource covering everything you need to know to navigate the Sacramento region including public transit information, updates on travel conditions via real-time tweets and links to bike routes and a rideshare database. 

If you're looking for something to really stretch your legs, a great excursion is available right from downtown. The American River Bike Trail, which starts in the city's Discovery Park, follows the river for 32 miles to its confluence with the Sacramento River at Beal's Point. It's a great ride known internationally for its easy access at multiple points while simultaneously allowing you to take in some of the well-preserved natural habitat and open spaces. 

As we say in California, ride on!