“Americans think 100 years is a long time and Europeans think 100 km is a long distance”
I’m fortunate to not be in this situation anymore but the commute for my last job before this one was around 40mi. That’s 64km and a bit. Prior to that it was closer to 60mi or 96.5km, I was driving over an hour just to get to work. This is not uncommon for Americans, especially poor ones. If you can’t afford to live in the city but still need a job so you can eat, situations like this are sometimes unavoidable.
Sure. But we’re in it now, and low fuel prices maintain the ability of the American working poor to survive. Changing this now would condemn millions of innocents to bankruptcy, homelessness and eventually death.
I don’t like it either, believe me. I want walkable cities, and sensible zoning, and affordable housing. But we don’t have that and there isn’t a magic switch we can throw to just make it happen. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner about this.
“Americans think 100 years is a long time and Europeans think 100 km is a long distance”
I’m fortunate to not be in this situation anymore but the commute for my last job before this one was around 40mi. That’s 64km and a bit. Prior to that it was closer to 60mi or 96.5km, I was driving over an hour just to get to work. This is not uncommon for Americans, especially poor ones. If you can’t afford to live in the city but still need a job so you can eat, situations like this are sometimes unavoidable.
The low fuel prices built this environment.
Sure. But we’re in it now, and low fuel prices maintain the ability of the American working poor to survive. Changing this now would condemn millions of innocents to bankruptcy, homelessness and eventually death.
I don’t like it either, believe me. I want walkable cities, and sensible zoning, and affordable housing. But we don’t have that and there isn’t a magic switch we can throw to just make it happen. We’ve painted ourselves into a corner about this.