Just one amongst a myriad of problems.

I mean, even if you were really quick and saved 5 minutes every morning, skipping the 10-minute walk places a very low valuation on the benefits of fitness (especially for somebody who sits in front of a computer all day).

But, that’s the crux of the problem. If people living within a mile of the office can’t take the initiative to walk to work then how the heck are we going to push the government and the populace in general to create sustainable communities?

Even with the “rising cost” of ($.80 / L) gas, people are still driving gas-guzzling SUVs alone to work every day (for 45 minutes mind you!) One of my co-workers who moved here with me lives between me and the office (5 minute walk) and he actually went 3 weeks without taking out his car. But he couldn’t imagine living like I do without a car.

Reducing the requirement for personal vehicle traffic is a huge factor in sustainable development. But quick discussions around the office pretty much highlight the problem: we’re addicted to our personal vehicles.

The average person cannot conceive of life without their car. In fact, the average person has designed their life around the easy availability of car (anecdotally, just listen to how people react when their car bites the dust and they can’t find a rental) Until people start viewing car driving time as a serious liability, we’re not going to turn this around.

DAvid

I just moved to Kansas City, MO from Winnipeg (via Edmonton) and I can tell you that people here are screwed, for basically the reasons that you mention.

Professional jobs mostly happen in the downtown region and the average person lives like 20-45 minutes drive away (on a 60 MPH highway none the less). Public transportation is almost non-existent (or effectively useless because of the Kansas / Missouri rift, KC is on the border) and b/c everyone just assumes that owning a car and driving long distances is par for the course.

Kansas City is actually known for having the most highway per population in the US. On a “snow day” in Kansas City half of the office doesn’t show up. And honestly more than that number don’t live close enough to the office to walk, bike or even use public transportation. KC is fundamentally built on the notion that gas is inexpensive and widely available.

But I just moved here from two of the least dense major cities in North America: Edmonton and Winnipeg! And there’s more going on here.

Outside of Vancouver and Toronto (and strips along the Gulf of St-Lawrence), Canada has ample amounts of space. So nobody builds up, they all build out. Navigating Edmonton or Winnipeg by public transit can be an exercise. And it has everything to do with community planning.

Both cities are like early stages of the cr*p I see here in KC. Winnipeg Transit honestly does an excellent job given the resources it has, but much of the city simply wasn’t built to be Transit-friendly. One rich area of the city (Whyteridge?) actually banned buses outside of rush hours. Which meant that University students in the region either had to carpool or time their connection with one of three morning or afternoon buses.

Of course, I just blamed community planning, but I’m not actually going to point fingers at the government here. The problem is us on so many levels. We build out instead of up, we want more space, even if it means an extra 10 minutes on the road each day. We don’t build with public transit in mind b/c everyone with money owns a car right? We build strip malls over square miles (South Kenaston in Winnipeg, South Edmonton Common in Edmonton, heck most of Gateway/Calgary trail), b/c we assume that no one would possibly want to walk these places.

My current morning commute in KC is about 10 minutes, on foot, from door to chair. One of my co-workers lives in the same apartment complex and drives to the office (and then back home). I can’t think of a more elegant summation of the problem.

DAvid

Why? Part of it is that I sold my car before moving here, so I’m not paying car payments and insurance. Part of it is that Vancouver has beautiful places to go that are open to the public (parks, beaches, trails) and reachable by bus, so I don’t need to spend as much money on entertainment. And part of it is that my whole outlook on shopping and purchasing is changing.

Beyond that, I’m healthier for walking everywhere and I’m outside more. (And, as you say, all of these things support each other; financial happiness definitely contributes to other happiness and vice versa.)

The house prices, however, are something that really limits a lot of people moving into the province!

http://www.seasidefl.com

I cannot stand the new areas in the suburbs. Every house is identical (well, maybe the vinyl siding is a different colour). The curvilinear and cul de sac roads are nightmares for navigation, traffic flow (both vehicular and foot), and expensive to service (tax-wise). While it may be boring, the grid layout commonly found in older core neighbourhoods is much more efficient and welcoming. Also much better at moving traffic.

Some might disagree, but humans need other human interaction during their daily lives. If you lock people in cars for commutes over 30 mins, you start to get irritability, road rage, etc, and the feeling of a neighbourhood gets lost.