4 ms·

Density means access to more things/people with the same or less resources (walking is significantly cheaper than driving). That's what freedom is.

gowld 9y ago
Driving gives you access to things/people more than 1 mile away, without paying huge sums of time, the only finite resource in your life.
- tmnvix 9y ago
  I would disagree that the time cost of using a private vehicle is not huge. The average annual cost of owning and operating a private vehicle is about $8,500[1]. The median personal income in the US is about $31,000[2]. Clearly, for a large part of the population, a good proportion of their working hours are spent paying for transportation. They are "paying huge sums of time". If you are only bringing in the median income, not being obliged to run a car is a massive advantage. Yes, of course you will miss out on some things such as going camping on the weekend but if this were really important to you then hiring a car specifically for this purpose would be a good option. [1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_03_17.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
- erispoe 9y ago
  It's not about the distance. It's about the number and diversity of things that you have access to. If you have access to 10 identical Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants with a 10 minutes drive, you have less access than if you have access to 10 very different restaurants with a 10 min walk as it's typically the case in a dense city center. I agree that the relevant metric is time. In a dense environment, you typically have access to more and more diverse things than in a less dense, car dependent suburban environment, in the same amount of time.

gowld 9y ago

Driving gives you access to things/people more than 1 mile away, without paying huge sums of time, the only finite resource in your life.

tmnvix 9y ago
I would disagree that the time cost of using a private vehicle is not huge. The average annual cost of owning and operating a private vehicle is about $8,500[1]. The median personal income in the US is about $31,000[2]. Clearly, for a large part of the population, a good proportion of their working hours are spent paying for transportation. They are "paying huge sums of time". If you are only bringing in the median income, not being obliged to run a car is a massive advantage. Yes, of course you will miss out on some things such as going camping on the weekend but if this were really important to you then hiring a car specifically for this purpose would be a good option. [1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_03_17.html https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
erispoe 9y ago
It's not about the distance. It's about the number and diversity of things that you have access to. If you have access to 10 identical Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants with a 10 minutes drive, you have less access than if you have access to 10 very different restaurants with a 10 min walk as it's typically the case in a dense city center. I agree that the relevant metric is time. In a dense environment, you typically have access to more and more diverse things than in a less dense, car dependent suburban environment, in the same amount of time.