The Atomisation of Urban Sprawl
I guess the other thing that worries me about urban sprawl and the over reliance on cars is the social isolation that is associated with it.
When you have to get in the car to get anywhere, it leaves you less connected with others and your immediate surrounds.
It’s just too atomising. Humans are social beings. Families and couples always work better when they have strong social networks around. Of course you will develop relationships with your neighbours but they are unlikely to have the same depth that you would have with those you have built the close and more intimate relationships that comes with shared experience.
I’m really not one to romanticise localisation and community the way a lot of hippies people do. I’ve no desire to go back to the days of the village or anything like that. I’m quite excited by the dynamic and changing nature of the modern world which is far more connected in so many ways. But I wonder if anyone has ever mapped the relationship between urban sprawl and divorce?
Life is also a lot cheaper (excluding housing costs) when everything is in walking distance. In too many of these outer suburbs, the local corner store is a service station that is a 5 min drive away, not a 5 min walk. That means that your transport costs alone go through the roof. Not to mention the heating and cooling costs attached to such a big house.
And what will happen with the advent of Peak Oil? Oil production has already peaked and in the next few years demand will outstrip production. Petrol prices are already through the roof and will not come back down in any meaningful sense anytime soon. So what is going to happen to our housing supply issues when petrol is at $7 or $8 a liter and there are thousands of acres of urban sprawl without a train station in sight.
But my Peak Oil rant will have to be saved for another post.
