The Destiny trilogy by David Mack is my favourite. I liked it so much that I got a print copy of the omnibus.
Cold Equations is another popular trilogy by Mack.
Vanguard is TOS era series with books alternating in authorship by Mack and the writing duo of Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore. Vanguard, Starbase 47, is a somewhat mysterious Starfleet base of operations in a new region under colonization. While the Enterprise and her crew make a few appearances across the series, it’s primarily about Vanguard and the ships that are based there.
It’s not a small minority who cannot manage as pedestrians, with active or even better public transportation.
Easily said, for a healthy young adult who doesn’t have to support young children.
Having been entirely car free until we had young children, it was a true eye opener to have to confront how difficult it is to get kids to medical appointments and activities without a car.
Urban design doesn’t provide infrastructure for families in the core. It’s not just a transportation choice issue. Cities would need to be designed very differently and greater physical and social accommodations for children and persons with disabilities and neurodivergence would be needed.
When kids became part of our lives, we deliberately chose to live as close to the core and public transit as we could and still be near schools, community centres and hospitals. It still put us in a semi-suburban style older neighborhood where some reliance on a car became necessary.
Unreliability of public transit is much more problematic when you have to transport young children who chill quickly when not moving in deeply cold weather.
Also, many children cannot consistently meet the behavioural expectations adults on public transit or elsewhere.
Adults aren’t shy to tell parents that they shouldn’t bring their kids into public spaces when they can’t meet behavioural expectations, but getting a kid having a meltdown home or a sick kid to a physician or hospital without a car is nearly impossible.
We made the choice to be a single car family to limit our environmental impact but that in itself was very challenging.
By the time our kids were independent teens, we found our own physical limitations with ageing reduced the viability of active transportation as our main approach. We could choose to move to another area but not without pushing our kids out to find their own housing.