My fear is MORE urban sprawl, which is even MORE miles of highways to pave and care for, and MORE pollution in the short term until we get very eco friendly powered electric cars.
Commutes are one of the only things that seem to limit urban sprawl.
Commutes are one of the only things that seem to limit urban sprawl.
I do wonder if there is some vehicle ownership path dependence that feeds into sprawl though. If vehicle access becomes less of a binary choice, people don't double down on choices related to ownership.
Not quite true - generating upstream is much more efficient, since the power plant doesn't have the weight restrictions that a car (which needs to haul itself around on four wheels efficiently) has. So even if power plants didn't ditch fossil fuels, electric cars are largely a step up.
That said, we are moving heavily towards renewables, and charging isn't time-critical so peaking power sources like Wind will be more than good enough.
while many choose to live outside of cities many are forced to because of bad city planning, regulations, and other government practices, which only served to protect vested business and political interest.
still I say though, you should be free to live where ever you want and can afford to.
I find both just as bad. I had a 1 hour commute by train in Chicago. Was terribad. Cannot even imagine the 90 or 120 minute commute guys.