Gas Prices and the Value of Walkable Communities

Scott Doyon looks at the painful price of long commutes in the face of rising gas prices. Walkable communities just got that much more appealing. Here's one family's story of what it's doing for them. Doyon writes:

"There's all manner of Americans right now 'preparing' for rising gas (and other energy) prices. But why does preparing have to be a reactive, punitive exercise?"

"While the average American household paid $4,155 for gasoline in 2011 -- a 25% increase over 2010 -- (in our walkable community) we paid about $1,400. And it wasn't because we made sacrifices. It was because we happened upon an immensely satisfying lifestyle that just happened to be less dependent on gasoline. At whatever price."

"The true lesson here is that, since birth, many of us have been indoctrinated into a program of American Dream-like desires that may, in practice, bear little resemblance to the things that actually bring us satisfaction and joy. So long as we continue to pursue them, making decisions as though the cost of energy doesn't matter, we'll increasingly find ourselves at the cruel mercy of fluctuating prices."

Thanks to Hazel Borys