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[quote user="wallyworld"][quote user="eolafan"] The automobile and relatively cheap gasoline are largely to blame for the creation of the suburbs in the late 1940's through the early 1960's and the breakdown of the traditional neighborhoods...parents driving their kids everywhere instead of walking or biking, the creation of malls with huge parking lots instead of neighborhood shops along the streets and avenues and the demise of streetcar and local rail lines for passenger service.Most of us have heard the old expression "What goes around comes around" and how about the one "Hang onto something long enough it will be popular again".  Well, these are surely considerations with gas approaching $5/gallon.We could be experiencing the beginnings of the reversing of what was created in the forties and fifties...which would be OK with me.[/quote] In urban areas versus suburban enclaves, the general trend has been a decrease in valuation for the outlying areas and and increase in urban areas where long car dependant commutes are not required.....the plowing under in Chicago and elsewhere of entire neighborhoods to pave them over as roadways....the vanishing of Insull's roads....is this about to reverse itself?...Los Angeles is a good example...rebuilding the Pacific Electric...maybe high gas has benefits if it forces planners to look at balancing transportation needs realistically. When I was growing up in Chicago we walked or took the L.....now I am seriously thinking of leaving the suburbs in a full circle....having to drive everywhere is a pain in the _ss ....as surban roads are so congested it takes forever to do a simple errand.... [/quote]Besides moving into high density living in the inner cities, suburbanites can escape the high fuel costs by telecommuting.  You can be sure there will be an explosion of demand for this work format as a result of the gas crisis.  But telecommuting will have to undergo some serious evolution to upgrade accountability from employees that are out of eyeshot of the employer.  I have seen polls in which 25% of telecommuters state that they only perform one hour of work for the company while being paid for an eight-hour-day.  You can't just take conventional employees who are used to the personal empowerment they achieve by working onsite, and expect them to take responsibility for their work like independent contractors when you let them work at home. What will have to happen is for workers to become independent contactors as one-person service companies.  They will have to compete with each other and be highly accountable for their time and task progress.  With this sea change, coupled with on-going improvements to communication and software, employers will discover that they have not only solved the energy crisis for much of their workforce, but they have also acquired a workforce that is several times more cost effective than their previous onsite direct employees.This will cause a distinct division of labor between those performing tasks that can be done offsite, and those performing tasks such as hands-on manufacturing that must be done on the company's site.  Therefore companies will tend to migrate their manufacturing centers toward the central cities, where it is possible for the workforce to transport themselves to the worksite.  Meanwhile, the people doing the offsite tasks will tend to migrate to the suburbs or even to more remote and pristine areas where they can make a living while avoiding the congestion and discomfort of the extra-high-density urban areas.
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