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So basically, people are less healthy in suburbs (well, perhaps American ones, because they're larger in size and spread further away from city centres) than in

by CM30 11y ago

So basically, people are less healthy in suburbs (well, perhaps American ones, because they're larger in size and spread further away from city centres) than in towns because they have to drive everywhere in the former? It makes sense, but... Wouldn't it mean it'd be even healthier to live in the middle of nowhere (read, as rural of a place as possible) and then simply not drive or take the bus? It wouldn't be time efficient, but hey, if you want to be really healthy, what's a 20 mile hike to the shops and back, uphill both ways?

andys627 11y ago
Yep, you'd be even healthier! :) But you wouldn't get to reap all those sweet sweet housing, infrastructure, and gas subsidies of living in the burbs.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  The principal thing people get in the 'burbs is cheaper real estate. I agree completely that the subsidies should go, but if you look even at the tax end of it, it's a loser unless you will stay long enough to fully pay the thing off.
cesarb 11y ago
It's a matter of convenience. A quick search tells me that normal human walking speed is around 5 km/h. Asking Google to convert the distance, 20 miles is around 32 km. That means it would take over 6 hours in your example to walk to the shops; almost everyone would prefer to take the car or a bus instead of wasting 6 hours in each direction. Now suppose the person lives in a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood. Suppose also the shop she wants to walk to is 1 km from her house. The time used would be a bit more than 10 minutes, short enough that there's no real need to get a car or public transport. There's also the matter of public transport itself. There isn't a bus stop in front of each building. Depending on where you live, you might walk 5-10 minutes to take the bus, then walk 5-10 minutes from the bus to your destination. That's also short enough to be tolerable, so you get people who don't even have a car, or who have a car but use it mostly for longer trips (or for when it's raining, which explains why the transit gets so bad even with a few drops of rain).
- to3m 11y ago
  Quick tip - to convert roughly from miles to km, pretend the miles is BCD, and convert to decimal. So 20 miles = 0x20 km = 32 km.
  - MengerSponge 11y ago
    You can also use the Fibonacci sequence: km/miles = phi (within 0.5%), and the limiting ratio of sequential terms of the Fibonacci sequence is phi. 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 3 miles = 4.828 km 5 miles = 8.047 km 21 miles = 33.796 km

by CM30 11y ago

andys627 11y ago

Yep, you'd be even healthier! :) But you wouldn't get to reap all those sweet sweet housing, infrastructure, and gas subsidies of living in the burbs.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago
The principal thing people get in the 'burbs is cheaper real estate. I agree completely that the subsidies should go, but if you look even at the tax end of it, it's a loser unless you will stay long enough to fully pay the thing off.

cesarb 11y ago

It's a matter of convenience. A quick search tells me that normal human walking speed is around 5 km/h. Asking Google to convert the distance, 20 miles is around 32 km. That means it would take over 6 hours in your example to walk to the shops; almost everyone would prefer to take the car or a bus instead of wasting 6 hours in each direction. Now suppose the person lives in a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood. Suppose also the shop she wants to walk to is 1 km from her house. The time used would be a bit more than 10 minutes, short enough that there's no real need to get a car or public transport. There's also the matter of public transport itself. There isn't a bus stop in front of each building. Depending on where you live, you might walk 5-10 minutes to take the bus, then walk 5-10 minutes from the bus to your destination. That's also short enough to be tolerable, so you get people who don't even have a car, or who have a car but use it mostly for longer trips (or for when it's raining, which explains why the transit gets so bad even with a few drops of rain).

to3m 11y ago
Quick tip - to convert roughly from miles to km, pretend the miles is BCD, and convert to decimal. So 20 miles = 0x20 km = 32 km.
- MengerSponge 11y ago
  You can also use the Fibonacci sequence: km/miles = phi (within 0.5%), and the limiting ratio of sequential terms of the Fibonacci sequence is phi. 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 3 miles = 4.828 km 5 miles = 8.047 km 21 miles = 33.796 km