Gas Prices As Urban Plannning

As gas prices soar, among the biggest losers are those folks who bought into far flung suburban developments.  We’ve long known that the American metropolitan landscape is the result of widespead automobile ownership.  People move dozens of miles from their workplace with no hope of a public transit option.  And many are just as happy about the lack of public transportation: they see it as consuming tax dollars and opening the door to riff-raff.  These moves had many effects, one of which was the resulting decline in city schools.  The middle and upper middle class simply abandoned urban school districts.

Ultra-low gas prices were the engine of that policy.  Can you imagine if we tried to reintegrate our schools through gas taxes, rather than busing?  At six bucks a gallon, cities and inner suburbs start to look awfully appealing notwithstanding the dread diversity of local schools.  There’s a neutral principle for you!

European countries have long taxed gas heavily with at least two significant results: maintenance of tighter urban areas and development of public transit in tandem with expansion that does occur.  In essence, gas taxes have functioned as a form of land use regulation.  These countries have also reaped another benefit from high taxes: they’ve done a better job of internalizing the signficant health and environmental costs of driving.  I don’t mean to diminish the upside to low prices – enhanced indidivual freedom to live and travel where you want – but I also assume that government has a proper role articulating preferences on these matters.  That’s why we tax smoking and booze, right?

It’s tough to unwind the development choices we’ve now made.  No machine can compress the sprawl.   We can add public transit, but when houses are spread so widely, even bus transit provides only rough coverage.  And even if we developed multiple downtowns, many people would still live miles from their new workplace.  But the market is always out there working.  If gas prices remain this high, they’re likely to have a significant impact on home values in ex-urban communities.  And for those of us who love cities – for their diversity and pulse, among many other reasons – there is reason to hope that bad news at the pump is good news for community.