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Infrastructure costs don't scale up linearly with distance, they scale up exponentially with complexity. Suburban infrastructure, while spread further apart th
by maxsilver 8y ago
Infrastructure costs don't scale up linearly with distance, they scale up exponentially with complexity.
Suburban infrastructure, while spread further apart than city infrastructure, is usually far simpler to build and simpler to maintain and simpler to replace.
Costs go up a little bit in raw resources (longer wires, longer pipes, etc). But costs drop dramatically in amount of labour, length of time, installation costs, and so on. So usually, it's net-cheaper overall.
- magduf 8y agoBut it externalizes its costs: it requires people to have cars, which not only costs a lot of money in direct costs (car payments, maintenance/repairs, fuel), but also has a steep environmental penalty, plus a cost in lives lost due to crashes.