See the Affordability Index Tool; Franklin scores badly
Gas will almost undoubtedly reach $4 a gallon this summer. Time to spend $1.9 BILLION to make it easier to drive on I-94!
Guess we need an anvil to fall on our heads ....
ALEX STEFFEN
APRIL 14, 2008How much of your monthly budget you pay for transportation is largely influenced by where you live.
Live in a compact community, and your mere choice of residence vaporizes trips, because the things you need are close-by, and we all know that the most sustainable form of transportation is not having to go anywhere in the first place. But should you have to travel some distance, you're more likely to be able to car share or take transit (since density makes transit cost-effective).
Live out in McMansion Land, though, are your choices are basically drive or spend hours and hours in inconvenient transit, if it can be found at all. So auto dependent are most new suburbs, that they're hazardous to the health of the people who live there.
All that driving gets expensive as well. The median household expenditure or transportation in the U.S. is 19.1% of its budget. That percentage rises sharply in suburban households, and, I'd expect, skyrockets in exurban developments where, on the extreme end, 3.5 million Americans now commute more than three hours a day, and spend more than 40% of their income on transportation.
(Read the rest at WorldChanging: How Affordable is that Subdivision, Really?)
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