Thought for the day

Often, a large apartment complex is built right next to a shopping center that happens to have a grocery store. Say, theoretically, you live in one of the apartments closest to the grocery store. It's 9:30 at night, and you need milk for the next morning. One would think you could just walk out your door, take a few short steps to the store, get your milk, and come home.

Not so fast.

Most apartment complexes (and shopping centers) in this type of situation have a sound wall or fence around them. This has been the case pretty much since the 70's. Hence, the apartments are completely isolated.

To get your milk, you may have to walk 1/4 mile to the entrance of your complex, then walk another 1/4 mile along a busy thoroughfare, then maybe another 500 feet in a busy parking lot to get to the store. Then, the store is so large that it's 1000 miles from the front to the dairy section and back to pay for the milk. Finally, you have to make the same walk back to your apartment.

So, what do people do? The easy answer is to jump in their car to run their errand.

The question then arises: Why is it like this? There are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is economics. Developers can theoretically make more money by building more units, so they make the apartment complexes bigger.

Next, the sound walls or fences are often a product of the city or municipality's desires. Or, it's built to "keep the residents safe". From what, I don't know...

Finally, the whole setup is a product of suburban city planning. The theory behind it is to build broader, faster thoroughfares so residents don't encounter bottlenecks that lead to bad traffic. The drawback is that this layout forces residents to use their cars rather than walking. This means that the next roads need to be even broader to accommodate more and more cars.

What's the answer, then? No quick and easy solution, that's for sure. My take on it is to encourage higher-density, urban-style development. The higher density means destinations are closer, and the urban-style, walkable developments mean we can reduce reliance on cars, reserving them for longer trips.