4 ms·

> We live in concentrated environments because walking down the street is a higher quality of life than needing to travel tens of kilometers to buy necessities.

by xtreme 8y ago

> We live in concentrated environments because walking down the street is a higher quality of life than needing to travel tens of kilometers to buy necessities. A smaller house is easier to maintain and clean. I see this sentiment often on HN, but so far I have not seen strong evidence to support it other than anecdotes. Have there been studies that show that most people would prefer to live in dense cities if employment wasn't a major deciding factor?

nojvek 8y ago
I don’t think it has to be dense cities like Tokyo. Plenty of suburbia in US. God I love suburbia.
- scarecrowbob 8y ago
  "God I love suburbia." It gives me a lot of hope to hear that there are people who do like that kind of thing, given how many folks I know who live in such situations. Personally, I don't like it-- at least in Texas it's the worst of all worlds: everything is far enough apart that you still need to drive most places in a car (and public transportation / biking are afterthoughts) but you're still living almost on top of each other. But if folks like it, good on them. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of it. I like being in places like manhattan where I can get on a subway and access some much amazing things, and I like to be out in the hills where have some space and quite. But that in-between space isn't good for me, and that's not taking into account the various cultural and economic issues that I find in living in "suburbia".
wonderwonder 8y ago
I do see your statement regarding employment, but most people on earth can't afford a car so living closer to necessities saves them a multi hour walk in an increasingly warmer climate.
- skybrian 8y ago
  This doesn't make sense to me economically in the US, so I wonder how it's different elsewhere? A decent used car is much cheaper than urban real estate in many US cities. Poor retirees often live in mobile home parks. And people who need to save money shop at Walmart, not a pricy convenience store. Seems like a poor person living in a big city who isn't lucky enough to have a rent-controlled apartment is going to end up homeless?
  - wonderwonder 8y ago
    Here is a read that may help, from 2001 but likely still very relevant. https://www.prb.org/howindianslive/ https://www.prb.org/howindianslive/
BlackFly 8y ago
What can be asserted without evidence can be denied without evidence. In other words, I'm sorry but I don't have any study to provide you. Probably such a study cannot exist, since it would be unethical to perform the sort of double blind study (needed to separate correlation from causation ) involving humans, transportation and employment. Observationally, people are moving to bigger cities, I think this is common enough knowledge to not require a citation.

by xtreme 8y ago

nojvek 8y ago

I don’t think it has to be dense cities like Tokyo. Plenty of suburbia in US. God I love suburbia.

scarecrowbob 8y ago
"God I love suburbia." It gives me a lot of hope to hear that there are people who do like that kind of thing, given how many folks I know who live in such situations. Personally, I don't like it-- at least in Texas it's the worst of all worlds: everything is far enough apart that you still need to drive most places in a car (and public transportation / biking are afterthoughts) but you're still living almost on top of each other. But if folks like it, good on them. I'm trying to figure out how to get out of it. I like being in places like manhattan where I can get on a subway and access some much amazing things, and I like to be out in the hills where have some space and quite. But that in-between space isn't good for me, and that's not taking into account the various cultural and economic issues that I find in living in "suburbia".

wonderwonder 8y ago

I do see your statement regarding employment, but most people on earth can't afford a car so living closer to necessities saves them a multi hour walk in an increasingly warmer climate.

skybrian 8y ago
This doesn't make sense to me economically in the US, so I wonder how it's different elsewhere? A decent used car is much cheaper than urban real estate in many US cities. Poor retirees often live in mobile home parks. And people who need to save money shop at Walmart, not a pricy convenience store. Seems like a poor person living in a big city who isn't lucky enough to have a rent-controlled apartment is going to end up homeless?
- wonderwonder 8y ago
  Here is a read that may help, from 2001 but likely still very relevant. https://www.prb.org/howindianslive/ https://www.prb.org/howindianslive/

BlackFly 8y ago

What can be asserted without evidence can be denied without evidence. In other words, I'm sorry but I don't have any study to provide you. Probably such a study cannot exist, since it would be unethical to perform the sort of double blind study (needed to separate correlation from causation ) involving humans, transportation and employment. Observationally, people are moving to bigger cities, I think this is common enough knowledge to not require a citation.