Parkway West WORST Congestion outside NY & LA (Pittsburgh, Butler: to buy, luxury)

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by Copanut

I'm sitting here in my home office watching 3 deer walk by, my car hasn't moved in 2 days, rode my bike down to the park for a few brew yesterday.

To each his own.

I glad that you're able to live a car free lifestyle in an area designed for and dominated by automobiles. Surely, you must admit that you are an outlier.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Lobick

I could go on and on about this but just one quick example. I firmly believe that one of the best things I can do for my kid is to limit the amount of time he spends in a car, since auto accidents are are among the leading cause of childhood death and injury. My wife has a walking commute to her office downtown with my son in a stroller on the way to daycare. Sometimes he goes weeks without being strapped in his car seat. A very real and tangible benefit of city living to us, his parents who want the best for him.

This is a very important issue that really doesn't get enough consideration from many parents (particularly with violent crime rates having come down so much in recent years).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Lobick

I glad that you're able to live a car free lifestyle in an area designed for and dominated by automobiles.

That, of course, is the real problem. The city versus the suburbs is not really the issue--the issue is autocentric development. And since we cannot physically fit everyone into the City anyway, we need to be thinking about how to bend development patterns in the suburbs in a less autocentric direction.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Lobick

I glad that you're able to live a car free lifestyle in an area designed for and dominated by automobiles. Surely, you must admit that you are an outlier.

I think there are more home based people out there than you think. Quite a few of friends do the same. I'm not totally car free, but I don't drive an SUV either.

[BrianTH]

If you play around with this map you can look at average vehicle-miles-traveled per household on a block-group level:

The H+T Affordability Index 2011

I think you'll find the patterns are about what you would expect (e.g., VMT per household tends to be higher in newer neighborhoods, and less dense neighborhoods, and so on).

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Jesus Christ, can we stop with anti-suburbs rhetoric already? Not everyone want to live in a city, not everyone wants to pay the city taxes, and not everyone wants to live on top of one another. This is coming from someone who has lived in the inner city for most of his life. I swear, some Americans actually want 7 million people living in a city Bangkok style.

I wonder what you people think of rural areas. Are they a bunch of backwards, country bumpkin no-go zones?

Thank you.

Also, I don't know what everyone's beef with SUVs are. It's pretty stupid. A Prius or a SmartCar won't effectively pull my family's pontoon boat. Are those good vehicles, as an SUV driver, I have absolutely nothing against those who choose to own them! So why so many people have such a thing with SUVs blows my mind. Guess what...I know this is a new, scary concept, BUT...different strokes for different folks, people, good Lord!

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I'm a person of strong ethical integrity, so with your condescending attitude notwithstanding I would search as long as I needed to in order to find a replacement position in the city proper.

To each his own. I admire people with strong ethical integrity. Of course, there are different ideas of what integrity means. Some people think an example of integrity is sticking with an employer who offered you an opening to your chosen career when nobody else would, and who spent time and money training you. I think there's also a lot of integrity in the person who sticks with a job because his career allows him to care for parents or raise a family--even if sticking with a company means putting up with an unexpected longer commute. All kinds of ways to have integrity in this world. Anyway, it's just a little food for thought.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by youngabe

Thank you.

Also, I don't know what everyone's beef with SUVs are. It's pretty stupid. A Prius or a SmartCar won't effectively pull my family's pontoon boat. Are those good vehicles, as an SUV driver, I have absolutely nothing against those who choose to own them! So why so many people have such a thing with SUVs blows my mind. Guess what...I know this is a new, scary concept, BUT...different strokes for different folks, people, good Lord!

I think it's important to note that there are really only 2 or 3 anti-SUV zealots who post here, but they do so often and mention their criticisms in nearly every post, so the perception they create is probably skewed.

As far as SUVs are concerned, I've nothing against them per se, I just wish the cost of ownership better reflected the societal costs they (and all motor vehicles) inflict. After that, should an individual still want to buy and operate one, I've no issue.

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by Lobick

I think it's important to note that there are really only 2 or 3 anti-SUV zealots who post here, but they do so often and mention their criticisms in nearly every post, so the perception they create is probably skewed.

As far as SUVs are concerned, I've nothing against them per se, I just wish the cost of ownership better reflected the societal costs they (and all motor vehicles) inflict. After that, should an individual still want to buy and operate one, I've no issue.

VERY good point!

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by youngabe

A Prius or a SmartCar won't effectively pull my family's pontoon boat.

Speaking just for myself, I don't have a problem with people using truck-based SUVs for serious towing. But people who are using truck-based SUVs for commuting, grocery shopping, driving their kids around, and so forth is a different matter. In other words, if your primary reason for driving a truck-based SUV rather than a minivan, station wagon, or hatchback is you think the SUV is cooler, that's not necessarily an attitude worth encouraging.