The Price of Necessity

[Waldo]

Originally Posted by betenoire

Not having a car is a pretty big lifestyle choice. When I first got rid of the car (forever ago!) I was living a 2 hour bus commute from work - not such a great idea. But since then I've gotten smarter and have intentionally chosen apartments that are within reasonable distance of work, a grocery store, on the bus route, etc.

There's been a lot of discussion lately, and I've done a bit of research myself as well, on the "demise of suburbia". Much talk about how the tide is finally turning now that people are losing their homes they are realizing that it wasn't their home that was the problem. It was their transportation costs.

I don't remember what show it was but the other day I watched a special about retrofitting shopping malls and other big box stores in suburban areas and they were talking to a few people who work in Manhattan but chose to buy a home in eastern Pennsylvanian because it was "more affordable". What they hadn't considered was the fact that they would turn around and spend *more* on transportation than they were spending on their mortgage. And their quality of life with all that driving? In the toilet.

I feel strongly, and hope fervently that I'm right, that the big trend in the next twenty years is a new urbanism to go hand in hand with a better understanding of the importance of living and working in close proximity.