short term planning

I believe that short term thinking encourages urban sprawl. When energy and resources are cheap, it almost makes sense to build single unit housing in far off areas. Politically, the status quo of existing neighborhoods is not threatened by change. Transportation by car to and from these locations means a little extra commute time, but is that such a high price to pay for your own house and yard? But what happens when energy prices start to rise? It will suddenly take more money to heat and to move to and from your suburban paradise. People living in more dense, more walkable areas would not be hit as hard by the effects of high gasoline prices.

Longer term planning efforts, such as those seen in Europe and Japan indicate to me that our society is fully capable of planning out and carrying through long term plans. If these plans could be set up to emphasize density and mass transportation such as Japan has done, I think that then environmental benefits could be huge.

transit servicing sprawl

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