Seeing shifts to the City
June 27th, 2008 Posted in Land Use, financing, municipalities, news, planningTransportation has always played a role in determining where you live. For years development relied on horse and buggy, then the rail roads, and then the personal automobile.Today we see the signs everywhere that transportation is now again the hot topic affecting everything from where live to how we live.
Check out this index from the Brookings Institute: The Housing+Transportation Cost Index. Unfortunately Vermont is not listed here, but you can check out other similar locations and get the idea… Transportation costs are similar to that of our housing costs.
Here are few links to many well written tidbits of information on the impacts of higher fuel costs on the way we use our transportation system.
- WSJ Article: 7$ gas when oil hits $200 a barrel
Oil at $135? That was just the opening skirmish in the “peak oil” wars. The latest smart money? $200 oil in 2010, with gasoline at $7 a gallon. And that is going to turn Americans into car-shunning Europeans once and for all—poor Americans, at least.
That’s the latest gloomy forecast from Jeff Rubin at Canadian brokerage CIBC World Markets, who just a few months ago figured $200 oil would be a thing of the distant future—like 2012.
Attention-grabber (CIBC)
Lunch starts at noon, discussion starts promptly and sessions are over by 12:55. Discussion leaders set the context with five minutes opening presentations and the rest is up to the participants.
No RSVP needed. We will provide drinks and healthy snacks. All sessions in the large conference room on the ground floor of Farrell Hall2. Metered parking, bike parking and CCTA bus service are all available.
6/13 Publishing Transportation Research Board Articles Lisa Aultman-Hall
- Grow Smart Maine Article: Suburban Developments Lose Value
- New York Times Article: Prices Shift Math for Life in Far Suburbs
Basic household arithmetic appears to be furthering the trend: In 2003, the average suburban household spent $1,422 a year on gasoline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By April of this year — when gas prices were about $3.60 a gallon— the same household was spending $3,196 a year, more than doubling consumption in dollar terms in less than five years. (NYT article)
Multimedia
- Atlanta article contrasts how the design and local control of a small city has affected their development patterns.
- Wall Street Journal: Breaking Point - Pricey Gas Drives People to Move
Higher gasoline prices appear to have definitely broken the camel’s back. People aren’t just driving less—they are actually moving to save gas money each month.
Greg Mankiw and the guys at Environmental Economics point to a couple of recent stories on gas nomads. More and more people are crunching numbers and finding that gas prices are making surburban or rural life increasingly tough to swallow.
