Abiola notes a report which purports to show that suburban sprawl shortens your life and attempts to define an opposition to sprawl based on free-market principles:
..but one thing that is rarely noted is that it is the very existence of poorly thought through policies that has done so much to foster the sprawl in the first place: in particular, the ubiquitous zoning restrictions on what can be built where. Although opposition to sprawl is often seen as a left-wing issue, there is nothing dirigiste about wishing to tear down regulations that encourage unhealthy, unwalkable and highly socially-stratified developments.
It would be nice to think that this is the case but my guess is that the market tends to strongly favour suburban sprawl and under a laissez faire approach to zoning you would see strikingly similar development emerge. The big issue is car use, and this is often misunderstood by the type of people who disparage big-box retailing such as Daniel Davies. If you have a (young) family and you don't own a car it is because either
a) you can't (practically*) afford one.
b) you are determined for political reasons to avoid car use.
If I was in any doubt about this before this month, it was made forcefully clear to me attempting to transport my kids around Rome. It is certainly possible to make your way around a city with young children by foot, public transport and taxi. It is even possible to do some light shopping, from groceries to veblen goods. It's just that at best it's not very pleasant and at worst it's a major inconvenience.
Once you have a car, the negative aspects of suburban sprawl - nothing much within walking distance, potentially** longer commute, are easily outweighed by the positives - cheaper, larger homes with gardens.
Personally, I find higher density development more aesthetically appealing and I prefer to be able to walk to the shop/pub/restaurant but I think there is a lot of wishful thinking by people, of the same aesthetic tastes as mine, who prefer not to recognise the popularity of such development.
Peter Gordon's blog is a good reference for a look at development and planning issues from an economically liberal point of view, a few short thoughts on sprawl and health arehere.
*Car use may be unaffordable to otherwise affluent individuals in certain cities due to additional costs related to parking.
** Not necessarily always the case.
Recent Comments