Blurb on Urban Sprawl

Long, long ago in the American mid-west there existed a sort of front-porch culture.
After eating a wholesome meal, the children would run out into the front lawn to catch the last whispers of the sun, playing with animal figurines and mini plastic cars while the parents assumed the swinging chair on a porch overlooking the lawn and street.
The neighbourhood would buzz until the sound of crickets took over the gutteral laughter that poured through the streets at sun-down.
A lone man would rock slowly, taking in a cigar and finally retreat to his home.

The idea of Post-War homes that catered to the nuclear family of Mom, Pop, Dick and Jane absolutely flourished - creating suburbia.
This was a time when kids actually went outside and did things like "kick the can", marbles, and jacks.
Mommy would clean all day and daddy would work all day and everyone looked clean-pressed, eager and "happy".

Today, 73% of families lack at least one quality of this nuclear family structure.
While this is true, urban sprawl keeps... well, sprawling.
(MORE greenhouse gas emissions,
LONGER commuting times,
MORE hair-tearing people perpetually stuck in gridlocks,
MORE tax dollars spent on highways and roadways, all to say "Viva la Vehicle".)

So why are we still building ridiculously unneccessary houses that have four-car garages and front lawns that are used merely to portray the amount of time the owners have to groom it? These houses extend from the outskirts of downtown to the boonies and everyone seems to just be trying to commute everywhere but there everyday anyways?

Give some thought to mixed land-use that could recall the quirkiness of main-street funk, to have subsidised housing near middle- or upper-class housing in close proximity to varieties of transit options, amenities, shopping and recreation.
Of course this is talking more about replenishing the downtowns that exist, and densifying the sprawl that also already exists, to stop it from expanding (rather than building main-streets in Belcarra or something).
People just seem to be obsessed with the idea that taking transit is for the poor, failing to realize its convenience, practicality and friendliness with the environment.

You're a bus-rider.
Other bus-riders think it takes too long to take the bus now that more people are driving cars.
So those bus-riders buy cars and drive alongside the bus that you're on.
Now it takes even longer for your bus ride.
So you get a car too.

It's an issue that will be far from solving even at the point when people acknowledge that it's an issue at all.