Quote:
Originally Posted by travis3000
If you live in a major metropolis then I can buy your anti car argument. But if you live in the suburbs, or the small towns/country then a vehicle of some sort is absolutely essential. Many people who live in cities choose to own a car for the freedom it brings to pick up and literally go anywhere you want on a whim.
|
What it comes down to is, if we're going to achieve sustainability then things need to change. That part isn't an argument but just a fact. The argument part is that one of the changes should be to design or redesign the places where we live to allow people to drive less and to walk, bike and use transit more. The fact that things aren't currently designed in such a way has little to do with an argument about how things should be designed.
But yes you're absolutely right that rural and suburban areas are often less sustainable than urban areas for the very reason that transportation is more energy intensive. In the book Green Metropolis author David Owens explains this in great detail in the chapter titled "More Like Manhattan". He explains that despite often not appearing as green or natural in people's minds, dense metropolises are significantly more sustainable to live in than either rural or suburban areas.