>So if the
>choice is to live in an apartment in a "dangerous"
>urban area, or a car commute to the supposedly "less
>dangerous" suburbia, many Amerikans opt for the
>latter, no matter what the actual cost of these
>options are.
The perception of danger also never includes the risk of spending a good part of your day in a car surrounded by other cars. I think that's riskier than taking an apartment west of the 405.