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People flock to places that are great to live, and those that have many services readily available in the walking distance are usually greater than those that d
by Ralfp 7y ago
People flock to places that are great to live, and those that have many services readily available in the walking distance are usually greater than those that don't.
But I am European living near the big city's center without car, so I am biased.
"In US 100 years is old - in Europe 100km is far."
> My pet theory is it effectively decreases the available housing supply by reducing the number of locations that people can practically commute from.
Also consider the Downs–Thomson paradox: the equilibrium speed of car traffic on a road network is determined by the average door-to-door speed of equivalent journeys taken by public transport. It is a paradox in that improvements in the road network will not reduce traffic congestion. Improvements in the road network can make congestion worse if the improvements make public transport more inconvenient or if it shifts investment, causing disinvestment in the public transport system.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs%E2%80%93Thomson_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downs%E2%80%93Thomson_paradox
- chroem- 7y agoThen why are there popular cities that aren't congested? (And coincidentally have lower costs of living)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wffurr 7y agoSuch as? All of the populous US cities have terrible congestion and high cost of living. The ones that aren't congested and have lower costs are smaller. Unless you mean something else by "popular."
- chroem- 7y agoLook at many of the large/fast growing/cheap cities throughout Texas and the southeastern US that have comparatively light congestion for their size.
- learc83 7y agoWhat cities are these? Most of the large southern cities I'm aware have terrible traffic. Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Tampa, Nashville--they all score terribly for traffic. The only reason they don't rank at the very top is because they are in fairly low population density areas.
- rayiner 7y agoTerrible relative to where? Austin has an average commute of 25 min. Stockholm is 34 minutes: https://www.thelocal.se/20120528/41090 https://www.thelocal.se/20120528/41090. London is 37 minutes each way: https://www.businessleader.co.uk/how-long-is-the-daily-work-commute-for-the-average-londoner/44325 https://www.businessleader.co.uk/how-long-is-the-daily-work-....
- learc83 7y agoOther US cities. According to this article Austin is the 14th most congested city in the US. http://www.businessinsider.com/us-cities-with-most-traffic-2019-2019-2 http://www.businessinsider.com/us-cities-with-most-traffic-2...
- rayiner 7y agoWrong in both counts. The largest US cities are among the cheapest large cities in the developed world: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4758/38890153315_bb29ac1b6c_b.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4758/38890153315_bb29ac1b6c_b..... Commutes are also shorter. Average commutes in London is 74 minutes (round trip): https://www.thekingsferry.co.uk/industry-news/article/commuters/average-london-commute-stands-at-74-minutes-a-day/801846579 https://www.thekingsferry.co.uk/industry-news/article/commut.... Houston and Dallas are 20-25 minutes less: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-doesn-t-have-the-worst-commute-time-in-13187899.php https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/.... DC is the second worst in the US, and still about 10 minutes shorter than London: https://wtop.com/traffic/2017/04/dc-area-has-2nd-longest-average-commute-in-america/ https://wtop.com/traffic/2017/04/dc-area-has-2nd-longest-ave...
- waqf 7y agoThat's cheapest compared to median income, which is a valid thing to measure but probably not what GP meant. And also it's only comparing very large cities in ~8 selected countries (no Paris or Rhine–Ruhr, for example). (Source of your data, 2019 edition since I couldn't find 2017: http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf)
- rayiner 7y agoHow else do you define “high cost of living” except relative to median incomes?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoI guess you could compare it between cities but as Mark Twain demonstrated in A Connecticut yankee in King Arthur's court that would be extremely silly.
- Zach_the_Lizard 7y ago
- sempron64 7y agoFrom the linked Wikipedia page. Restrictions on validity According to Downs, the link between average speeds on public transport and private transport applies only "to regions in which the vast majority of peak-hour commuting is done on rapid transit systems with separate rights of way. Central London is an example, since in 2001 around 85 percent of all morning peak-period commuters into that area used public transit (including 77 percent on separate rights of way) and only 11 percent used private cars. When peak-hour travel equilibrium has been reached between the subway system and the major commuting roads, then the travel time required for any given trip is roughly equal on both modes."[citation needed] ---- So in general, it's entirely unclear whether this effect applies in most scenarios on the road network. In my area of NYC, a poster child for arguments about this effect and why we should never build anything due to "induced demand", it is vastly faster to drive across any borough other than Manhattan rather than taking public transit at all times except certain corridors at the absolute peak of rush hour.
- L_Rahman 7y agoThis is a symptom of low road demand for Queens-Brooklyn transit which in turn is because of the relative size of both boroughs, their lower population density and most importantly because there isn't a subway line that truly cuts across the two boroughs. If there were a proper subway line, running say from LGA, through Jackson Heights, Ridgewood and then cutting east through Brooklyn to JFK there's no way a driver could go faster on Grand Central Parkway anywhere near peak times.