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It's not cheaper. It's just that people don't factor in the dramatically increased transportation costs. Metro Vancouver studied this and found that when trans

It's not cheaper. It's just that people don't factor in the dramatically increased transportation costs. Metro Vancouver studied this and found that when transportation costs were factored in, car reliant outer suburbs became more expensive than "pricy" downtown and inner suburbs. http://bc.ctvnews.ca/suburbs-pricier-than-vancouver-when-transportation-factored-in-study-1.2364563 http://bc.ctvnews.ca/suburbs-pricier-than-vancouver-when-tra...

kotojo 10y ago
I think that depends on how well the transportation is in the city. Me and my wife would have no reason to have cars in New York City, but we lived in Atlanta for a few years and public transportation is not a viable option unless you are willing to take an hour or two to get anywhere not directly on one of the few train lines so transportation costs are less than $100 more for the gas to go into town from the burbs.
nck4222 10y ago
That study assumes a lot (suddenly you have a 2 car household if you live in the suburbs vs 0 cars in the city?), looks at averages, analyzes two things that people spend money on, and only considers Vancouver and its suburbs. That's not quite enough to support the blanket statement "living in the suburbs is not cheaper than living in a city." As someone who's in this situation right now, I can guarantee you that moving out of my city is the frugal option.
- Tiktaalik 10y ago
  The article mentions two car household etc but the actual data comes from the national census where people simply report how much they spend on transportation. There's no assumptions made about what people's commutes are or what their transportation mode is. People just spend more on transport in the suburbs. The reason is for this is because many of these suburbs are wholly designed for the car and that's the only viable transportation option for anything and the car is the most expensive form of transportation.
CaptSpify 10y ago
Anecdotally: I moved from Midwest suburbs into a coastal major city. I sold off my car when I did so. Even with the raised prices on things like rent, food, etc, I still couldn't figure out why I had so much money left over. I thought I was forgetting to pay a bill. Turns out, owning a car was much more expensive than I'd realized. I ended up saving quite a bit more by living in the "expensive" city. But most of the major cities that I've been to in the US don't have a decent public transportation system. If they would fix this, then people could become less reliant on cars.
vonmoltke 10y ago
North Shore, one of the areas the article calls "more affordable", is shown to be more expensive before factoring in transportation.

kotojo 10y ago

I think that depends on how well the transportation is in the city. Me and my wife would have no reason to have cars in New York City, but we lived in Atlanta for a few years and public transportation is not a viable option unless you are willing to take an hour or two to get anywhere not directly on one of the few train lines so transportation costs are less than $100 more for the gas to go into town from the burbs.

nck4222 10y ago

That study assumes a lot (suddenly you have a 2 car household if you live in the suburbs vs 0 cars in the city?), looks at averages, analyzes two things that people spend money on, and only considers Vancouver and its suburbs. That's not quite enough to support the blanket statement "living in the suburbs is not cheaper than living in a city." As someone who's in this situation right now, I can guarantee you that moving out of my city is the frugal option.

Tiktaalik 10y ago
The article mentions two car household etc but the actual data comes from the national census where people simply report how much they spend on transportation. There's no assumptions made about what people's commutes are or what their transportation mode is. People just spend more on transport in the suburbs. The reason is for this is because many of these suburbs are wholly designed for the car and that's the only viable transportation option for anything and the car is the most expensive form of transportation.

CaptSpify 10y ago

Anecdotally: I moved from Midwest suburbs into a coastal major city. I sold off my car when I did so. Even with the raised prices on things like rent, food, etc, I still couldn't figure out why I had so much money left over. I thought I was forgetting to pay a bill. Turns out, owning a car was much more expensive than I'd realized. I ended up saving quite a bit more by living in the "expensive" city. But most of the major cities that I've been to in the US don't have a decent public transportation system. If they would fix this, then people could become less reliant on cars.

vonmoltke 10y ago

North Shore, one of the areas the article calls "more affordable", is shown to be more expensive before factoring in transportation.