Average European commute is ca. 33 minutes. That is perhaps something like <8 miles. I have less than 25 minutes if walking to the parking lot is accounted.
As Xavier pointed out this problem with cities is mostly American problem due to bad city design. Other problem is with the distribution of wealth in America, because middle class real incomes has not increased since 1970's. This causes all sorts of social problems and is greatly contributing to commuting distance. One factor is that middle class workers has no longer enough purchasing power to buy decent house from near the working place, hence longer and longer commute. However, when oil prices are rising, it will hurt disproportionally the middle class, yet again. I do not think that flying cars are an option for the masses, because there is very high maintaining costs. This means that they are a toys for only those who will take the maintenance as a hobby. There is of course that unavoidable noise pollution so you cannot fly in the city with those. Also safety issues are too big in the cities. ―Jouni On 5 Apr 2012, at 21:06, Terry Blanton <hohlr...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Xavier Luminous > <xavier.lumin...@googlemail.com> wrote: > >> As hinted at by Jed and Eric, the problems you are describing are very >> US-centric, and I don't think flying cars are the way to address them. > > Jed and I live in Atlanta. The average one-way commute in Atlanta is > 33 miles. Mine is 25 miles. Jed has chosen more wisely. > > T >
