Time, Personal Happiness and Sprawl

Personal Happiness:

''It is much more common to complain about time or money than to fume about urban design. In part this is because we think our miseries as being caused by personal problems rather than social problems Americans often say, 'There aren't enough hours in the day', rather than, 'I'm frantic because the distance between my home and my workplace is too great'.'

Source: Dolores Hayden, Redesigning The American Dream, The Future of Housing, Work and Family Life.

(Via Slow Home.)

Comments

[daver]

Yea this is something I just don't understand. Generally do people not value their time very highly? Personally I live, work and play all within walking distance of each other so often I would tell people at the office that "I could be home before they left the parking garage" and they would laugh but really didn't appear to value their time.

[John Michlig]

Not to mention the whole idea of interaction while in transit. If you can walk to work, you can encounter actual humans along the way; stop for a bagel. Public transit means interaction.

Contrast that with garage-to-garage transportation that the average worker at, for example, Northwestern Mutual deals with. 30 minutes (or much more) alone in a car. Your only encounters? The people you see every day at the office. Local amenities to walk to while at work? NONE.

[daver]

Oh I definitely agree. When you are in you car it is very unlikely you are going to run into a friend and have a real chat but when you are walking the chances of interaction go way up.