Great piece taking into account the non-pecuniary benefits of good urban planning. As an economist who covers research (a lot on this topic recently of urban house prices and public transit), the research naturally does focus on these pecuniary benefits (whether productivity, income or house value). There is a growing research trend to attempt to estimate a dollar equivalent value of amenities. This makes public transit and even more important cocept. But naturally not all of this can be easily factored/modelled, so we sometimes have to take a stand/guess on the value generated.
I learned a couple of things on a road trip 2 summers ago, one where we had very few time-driven destinations and no deadline about arriving home. (We're at that stage of life where we can either choose to work on a more leisurely schedule or not work at all.)
By deciding to avoid interstates as much as practical (which turned out to well over 90% of the time), I learned about the sheer number of available routes for getting from A-Z across this big country of ours. Old Federal Highway Rt. 2 was one of my favorites. It runs from Everett WA to Houlton, ME, and took us through some of the most beautiful scenic countryside and interesting cities and towns you'd never see if you took the freeway. America looks a lot less generic when you take the old routes.
That experience changed me permanently. I avoid freeways now as a matter of practice when I can. It may be more circuitous but using city streets during congested times rather than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway often saves me time.
This has nothing to do with productivity. Just an observation that we have a lot of roadway infrastructure out there that isn't the usual congested routes.
Great piece taking into account the non-pecuniary benefits of good urban planning. As an economist who covers research (a lot on this topic recently of urban house prices and public transit), the research naturally does focus on these pecuniary benefits (whether productivity, income or house value). There is a growing research trend to attempt to estimate a dollar equivalent value of amenities. This makes public transit and even more important cocept. But naturally not all of this can be easily factored/modelled, so we sometimes have to take a stand/guess on the value generated.
I learned a couple of things on a road trip 2 summers ago, one where we had very few time-driven destinations and no deadline about arriving home. (We're at that stage of life where we can either choose to work on a more leisurely schedule or not work at all.)
By deciding to avoid interstates as much as practical (which turned out to well over 90% of the time), I learned about the sheer number of available routes for getting from A-Z across this big country of ours. Old Federal Highway Rt. 2 was one of my favorites. It runs from Everett WA to Houlton, ME, and took us through some of the most beautiful scenic countryside and interesting cities and towns you'd never see if you took the freeway. America looks a lot less generic when you take the old routes.
That experience changed me permanently. I avoid freeways now as a matter of practice when I can. It may be more circuitous but using city streets during congested times rather than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway often saves me time.
This has nothing to do with productivity. Just an observation that we have a lot of roadway infrastructure out there that isn't the usual congested routes.