My husband and I moved from suburban life 3 years ago to a condo in Clarendon (Arlington) -- and I felt brilliant at the time, with gas at $3/gallon. With gas now at $4+, I feel like a downright genius!
Now the New York Times has confirmed my genius-ness with an article, "Fuel Prices Shift Math for Life in Far Suburbs." As the article states, "The shift to costlier fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities."
Higher fuel prices may at last be providing the big motivation for people to seek a more transit-oriented, walkable, bikeable life. We've already seen that Arlington's urban villages have weathered the housing downturn better than our ex-burban neighbors.
Urban villages = healthier and now, wealthier! Am I brilliant, or what!
Diana Sun is Director of Communications for Arlington County, a walking commuter, bicylist, and happy resident of the urban village of Clarendon.
You go girl! Cyclists are the smartest people on earth. Everybody knows that.
Posted by: David | July 15, 2008 at 03:11 PM
I have seen a shift in attitudes over the course of the year and a half I've been cycling to work. At first, most everyone thought I was crazy to bike to work year round. I was the only employee out of 50 cycling to work for a while. One of my co-workers has recently shifted to cycling to work several days a week, and I've had other employees ask me about it because they're interested too. And we have free parking and Metrochek at my office, so it seems that the gas prices are really causing people to reconsider their transportation mode.
Posted by: ara | July 14, 2008 at 09:33 AM