Consider the evolution of local community organization. In the early industrial town the workers commuted to work on foot. Consequently workers tended to live in close proximity of their workplace. With improving transportation and communication the organization of cities has tended to become much more spread out. First, the trolley and then, the commuter train allowed the more affluent to more out along the tracks. The spread of the automobile and telephone created the vast suburban sprawl of post WW II society.
Positive aspects: The current suburban sprawl has many desirable features. Most households have a great deal of choice. They can live in the city, inner suburbs or far out and commute to work by car. Moreover, they can easily travel to shopping or social groups such as church or athletic clubs. For those household who own an automobile, such a lifestyle offers them a great many choices. Economic opportunity whether access to jobs or to alternative sellers of goods is dependent on having a high speed urban freeway system to allow members of household to forage over 100 square miles for jobs and consumer purchases.
Negative aspects: Nevertheless, this transportation-oriented form of local organization has many undesirable features. First, the transportation system must be built to handle the morning and evening rush hour traffic. As soon as the transportation system is improved developers rush to build to take advantage of the improvement. Soon congestion returns. Second, social organization based on travel for each household activity is extremely energy inefficient and leads to massive pollution. Finally, massive traffic flows in urban neighborhoods divides urban neighborhoods and leads to increased crime.