3 ms·

I was also going to note that this article is in the Irish Times, so a lot of the author's perspective is based on that country. In Ireland, there's far less c

I was also going to note that this article is in the Irish Times, so a lot of the author's perspective is based on that country. In Ireland, there's far less commuting than in the US simply due to the size of the country, and the Irish economy has a different mix of sectors than the US, so the types of jobs are different. You can tell from the fact that the author targets commuting as a greenhouse gas source that he's talking about commuting by other means than walking. 44% of Ireland's population lives in a single city, so "going to work" may well consist of walking or public transportation. He makes a number of points which probably only apply to the situation in Ireland, and which would be impossible in the US (despite the enthusiasm on HN) because of the size of the country, the types of employment available, and the fact that the mix of people in the US is simply socially different from Irelend. Offsetting greenhouse gas use in Ireland by working from home or a shared workspace may well be a workable proposition in Dublin, but it's a complete impossibility in the US, for very many reasons. I wish it was otherwise, but the US and its economy are built around use of vehicles... it's a big country.

CalRobert 7y ago
I have the benefit of dual perspectives, having lived my first 30 years in the US (California) and my most recent 7 here in Ireland. Ireland and the US are both quite auto-dependent. Commute times are similar 44% is only true if looking at the broadest possible definition of Dublin, and most of those places are not well-served by transit, bike infra, etc. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/average-commute-u-s-states-cities/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/average-commute-u-s-states-... https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6cii/p6td/ https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6c... Most people do it by car, too, though not quite as many as the US (63%) https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6cii/p6mtw/ https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6c... The US is indeed low density, but this is generally _because_ it's built around vehicles, not because the country is big. The older cities were built before cars and exhibit pretty high densities. The density of the country as a whole doesn't really matter, anyway. After all, it's not like someone said "we just added Alaska as a state, let's start downzoning Los Angeles for lower density". "Offsetting greenhouse gas use in Ireland by working from home or a shared workspace may well be a workable proposition in Dublin, but it's a complete impossibility in the US" This is surprising considering how many of my colleagues work remotely from the US.

CalRobert 7y ago

I have the benefit of dual perspectives, having lived my first 30 years in the US (California) and my most recent 7 here in Ireland. Ireland and the US are both quite auto-dependent. Commute times are similar 44% is only true if looking at the broadest possible definition of Dublin, and most of those places are not well-served by transit, bike infra, etc. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/average-commute-u-s-states-cities/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/average-commute-u-s-states-... https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6cii/p6td/ https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6c... Most people do it by car, too, though not quite as many as the US (63%) https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6cii/p6mtw/ https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp6ci/p6c... The US is indeed low density, but this is generally _because_ it's built around vehicles, not because the country is big. The older cities were built before cars and exhibit pretty high densities. The density of the country as a whole doesn't really matter, anyway. After all, it's not like someone said "we just added Alaska as a state, let's start downzoning Los Angeles for lower density". "Offsetting greenhouse gas use in Ireland by working from home or a shared workspace may well be a workable proposition in Dublin, but it's a complete impossibility in the US" This is surprising considering how many of my colleagues work remotely from the US.