“A sure sign of the apocalypse” — Americans are driving less, and bike-hostile cities showing housing declines
So says Esquire magazine and statistician Nate Silver. I read Silver’s blog FiveThirtyEight.com obsessively during the elections and the Minnesota recounts. Finally he is homing in on something useful: America’s driving habits.
Conclusion: The apocalypse is coming. Americans are driving less. And, ahem, are you listening, Tucson City Council? Check this little nugget out:
There is some evidence that more Americans are at least entertaining the idea of leading a more car-free existence. Between October 2004, when gas prices first hit two dollars a gallon, and December 2008, when they fell below this threshold, three cities with among the largest declines in housing prices were Las Vegas (-37 percent), Detroit (-34 percent), and Phoenix (-15 percent), each highly car-dependent cities. Conversely, the two markets with the largest gains in housing prices were Portland, Oregon (+19 percent), and Seattle (+18 percent), communities that are more friendly to alternate modes of transportation.
–Erik Ryberg