We are talking about the United States, right? According to this data:
http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/pub/STT.pdf
The average commute trip distance in 2001 was 12.10 miles. So if you want all the factories and farms that feed and serve the cities (and landfills that take their waste) to be *in* the cities, so the average drops to 6 miles, where are they going to go?
Factories stink, and when my Manhattanite friends come for a weekend they can't stomach the manure smell for very long, as I am surrounded by farmlands. Cities are not self-sufficient - they have to import everything and export all their waste. If it wasn't for the rural workers and suburban workers, cities would whither and die.
A lot of people *already do* live close to work. If they have a greater than average commute, it is usually because they can't afford to live closer to work.
> >Ten dollar a gallon gas will save energy in the short run mainly
> >by hurting poor and working people.
>
> The higher gas price will hurt a majority of workers in the short run
> -- there is no doubt about it. They will have to make a trade-off:
> one one hand, their standard of living will go down in the short
> term; on the other hand, their short-term sacrifice will buy time, so
> that they, their children, and other people's children will have "a
> long term" on earth, and so that they will be in a better bargaining
> position vis-a-vis capital, which, too, will get less mobile due to
> higher transportation costs.
>
> There is one silver lining. The poorest of the poor, already carless
> and stuck in cities (which was graphically demonstrated by Katrina),
> can stay put and welcome back businesses and their fellow workers.
But there are more poor in rural areas:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/rdrr96/
Matt
-- PGP RSA Key ID: 0x1F6A4471 aim: beyondzero123 PGP DH/DSS Key ID: 0xAFF35DF2 icq: 120941588 http://blogdayafternoon.com yahoo msg: beyondzero123
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
-Ferris Bueller