Comment by wqaatwt
12 hours ago
A lot of people prefer living in less dense environments and personal vehicles will always be more efficient there than public transport
12 hours ago
A lot of people prefer living in less dense environments and personal vehicles will always be more efficient there than public transport
If it's just the free market then why do we need to regulate single family zoning across the United States? And why can't the suburbs pay for their own infrastructure?
Suburbs do pay for their infrastructure. Strongtowns keeps spreading the myth that they can't, but the numbers they use don't add up. They choose not to pay for transit because they don't need it.
A lot of people prefer living in financially affordable environments, and in a functioning market, dense towns/cities will always be more affordable unless you literally work on a farm.
Everyone prefers to live in a giant sprawling mansion (with personal private forest) in the middle of the CBD. But preference is useless data unless it includes their pricetag preference too.
> dense towns/cities will always be more affordable
In my experience, that isn't true. At the very least, it depends on what your preferences are. If I moved my home from outside Austin to inside the city, I couldn't afford it.
Densifying a city will make it cheaper than if we don't densify, but we usually densify because of high prices, so high density correlates with high prices despite being a counter-force against it.
And, yeah, living in a dense city definitely tends to cost more than the suburbs, especially per-square-foot. There might be exceptions (high crime urban areas with wealthy suburbs), but you're usually getting a pretty nice house in that suburb.
Density is more expensive. Not just because of demand for the area (though that doesn't help), but because density requires different building methods. Your single family house can be built so cheaply because it doesn't have to support the weight of many floors above; nor does it need to be fireproof because in the rare fire you can evacuate. (density means more people are displaced, fires are more likely, and longer distances to get away)
Density is also more expensive because higher costs are worth it. A rural area cannot afford things like library in walking distance of every farmer (every farmer would have to pay for a personal librarian), but in a dense area it is only a couple bucks for each one - but that all adds up to hundreds of dollars in extra costs that less dense areas do without. (you decide if it is worth the cost)