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Comment by rcarmo | Hacker News Reader

I'm rather more partial to walking. The thing is, cities and office parks are increasingly built with the assumption you'll drive there to do business, and "walkable" business districts tend to be premium real estate - which only reinforces the former by encouraging people to toss up office parks out in the wilderness, typically outside the range of any form of civilised public transportation...

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> "The thing is, cities and office parks are increasingly built with the assumption you'll drive there to do business"

Not in EU they aren't. At most they are being now built assuming you should go there by public transportation, but certainly not that you drive there.

I live in a region that is geographically about the same size as the Netherlands (give or take a few percent).

The population of the region is about 300,000.

Much of the US has population densities like this, below 50 people per square mile. People generally live at much higher densities than that, but it still doesn't justify much in the way of public transport.

Which isn't to say that the US does a good job with public transport, but a significant part of the difference is the affordability and utilization of given levels of service. In many higher density areas, public transport tends to be okay.

In many higher density areas, public transport tends to be okay.

Apart from NY and SF (?), what other areas are you thinking of?

I lived in Portland for a few years and mostly used bus and light rail.

Washington, DC and Pittsburgh also come to mind.

I'm in the EU (Lisbon). There are at least four office parks outside the city, and now college campuses are starting to move out too.

I think society needs to reject these complexes. Personally I refuse to live or work anywhere like this. I pay a hefty premium for this attitude, but I'm betting it will mean a better life for me.

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