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We are on the verge of a radical change in how we get to work, how far away we live from work, and even how we live in our communities. Even lawyers are biking to their law firms because of high gas prices. Commuting by bike, as NBC Nightly News recently reported, is now a popular way to beat the skyrocketing cost of gasoline.
As NBC has reported over the years, the residents of Portland, Oregon have long made that city the most progressive in the U.S. in terms of how people consider the environmental impact of what they do. Today, Portland has transformed many low-traffic streets into "bike boulevards" to accommodate the increasing number of bicycle commuters who want to avoid the painful gas crunch.
Infrastructure and city planners will need to plan for the new ways in which people commute to work. How will our cities and communities change because of the shift from single, commuter-driven cars to the use of public transportation, biking, or even walking to work? Many car-driving commuters are even beginning to realize that it's just too expensive to reside in the suburbs or exurbs.
This gasoline-driven reconsideration of where best to live could reverse a demographic trend that began when American workers left central cities for the "good life" of the suburbs. In a forced economic move, people are now considering moving closer to where they work, or moving to areas where light rail lines are being laid. In many cases, people are even moving back to urban centers.
Although telecommuting continues to increase in popularity, helping to off-set the economic burden of driving long distances to work, it's not enough to reduce the impact of having so many vehicles on our roadways. There are still problems with clogging the arteries of commerce and wasting the most precious resource of working people and businesses – time.
Resources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13439065/
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Re: The Next Big Thing: Changes in Commuting, Working and Living (Part 1)
