Living in Sprawlanta...

This NPR story examines one Atlanta family and the monetary and time costs they've incurred since moving to Sprawlanta:

Outside metropolitan Atlanta, one of the nation's most congested cities, Michelle Carvalho's dreamhouse is 3,000 square feet. It has five bedrooms, a two-car garage and a big yard.

Her 16-month-old son's day care is 10 minutes away. But Carvalho's real commute, to her job as a cancer prevention researcher at Emory University, can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half, depending on traffic.

Meanwhile, this companion NPR story shows how another Atlanta family is living in a much more sustainable way:

The Taylors live in Atlantic Station, a new community in mid-town Atlanta designed to put jobs, homes and shopping all in one place, close to public transportation. Developments like Atlantic Station are springing up around the country, and proponents say they help cut car pollution, including the carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change.

(Via Daily Sprawl.)

Comments

[daver]

If you read through this entire article you will see that they found the average Atlanta area person drives 66 miles per day. It makes me wonder how much time does the average person loose due to sprawl?

[Josh Strupp]

Truly remarkable that Atlanta exists at it's current size and population considering that it stands on a watershed (I believe that's the proper term for "all the rain water runs away from it). I find it amazing that a city the size of Atlanta has continued to grow unchecked without any viable watersource nearby. They are literally sucking small and medium sized lakes dry to keep up with consumption.