Monday, May 19, 2008

Stranded in Suburbia



Krugman visits a modern nation and likes what he sees.

To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

It’s the kind of neighborhood in which people don’t have to drive a lot, but it’s also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin — but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

NYT

1 comment:

Brains said...

And it ain't just trains, buses, bikes. It's an S-Bahn network (express trains), an U-Bahn network (local subway), a Strassenbahn network (street cars), and night buses. Though sadly there is no Strassenbahn in the former West Berlin, they rely more on buses there. Ah the capitalist legacy...