> We must make do mostly with building up and densifying the urban areas we already have. As transportation goes, so go our cities. If we make transportation b

> We must make do mostly with building up and densifying the urban areas we already have. As transportation goes, so go our cities. If we make transportation better, our cities can be less dense. So can't we make transportation better? What causes congestion? Car traffic. Why does car traffic cause congestion? It's an inefficient use of roads. What are some alternatives? 1) Build more roads. Sure, except it's expensive, time consuming, and you quickly run out of land, and would have to build them one on top of another. 2) Fit more people into existing roads. How? Buses, trolleys, trains, subways, vans. Build out the mass transit to the suburban enclaves. But all this supposes an urban center is also the only answer. What do people need to congregate in one place for? Usually to work in one place. But why work in one place? Due to division of labor, most of us don't do things with multiple completely different people on multiple completely different subjects; we're just not that collaborative. But you may need to transport your work to another group in a company. At a bank, all this is paper; in a car manufacturing plant, this is car parts. The former is done digitally now, and the latter could be done, again, by increased transportation efficiency. All the other things we use are already decentralized outside the city; schools, churches, supermarkets, health care, water, power, recreation. It's really just business, and the ability to work decentralized, that constricts where and how we live. Transportation will make it easier to decentralize. And we can start by giving up our cars. The other aspect of work decentralization I've already seen at a rental car facility. A computerized kiosk displayed a remote worker on screen, who processed my driver's license, credit card and rental information and directed me to my rental car. It was surprisingly trouble-free and pleasant, and only one of us needed to be there.