3 ms·

I'll refer you to my explanation on another thread. I'm in no way advocating urban sprawl: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19868072 https://news.ycombinat

• ehnto 7y ago
  I think I actually live in a city like you speak of. 1.5m people. Our car commutes are between 20-40 minutes long from the majority of suburbs, and our CBD is small with lots of shopping precincts dotted around the suburbs but most of the action taking place in the CBD. Few restaurants in the Suburbs for example, and most residential is in the suburbs. You are 20 minutes from hills, rural towns, or world class beaches from the CBD. We have dozens of national parks and outdoor activity areas (lots of Mountain Biking for example). I enjoy good cycling once nearer the city, although I am definitely at that limit I was talking about where it's too far to cycle practically to stuff in the suburbs. Cycling to the CBD is fine, because once you're there everything you need is in the same place. I suppose I'm inclined to agree with you, with a modifier that it would be nice to have medium residential density in the suburbs as well so that it was more affordable to live a saner cycling distance from the city. The issue is that while it's fine to cycle to one destination in the suburbs, if you need to be in two different locations in one day plus work you can't really achieve it. That's where a strong CBD helps a lot.