Real Arizona Blog

Where we live, work and play is essential to our happiness according to studies done on commuting. So how do the experts interpret our happiness quotient with regard to commuting to and from our daily jobs. Well according to Nick Paumgarten in an article in the New Yorker Magazine titled There and Back Again there is apparently a correlation between how much time we spend commuting and how happy we are. Studies quoted by Paumgarten done in Texas show that of the activities rated by 900 Texas working women, commuting came in as the least enjoyable (sex came in first).

Apparently it is the "time" we give up and is lost that gives us so little satisfaction while commuting. Commuting deprives us of the opportunity to interact with our family, friends and colleagues in any type of social setting and thus isolates us from others. Some of us resort to bridging this vacancy by using our cell phones to talk to the friends and family we won't have the time to interact with once at home or at work. I make use of my cell phone to call my parents who welcome my calls and hear how things are going and I can find out how they are doing almost daily since they live on the east coast and I live in the desert southwest, worlds apart.

Frustration with the traffic has us also checking in with the radio to get updates on traffic reports in hopes not to get trapped in any snarls that we might be able to avoid. Frustration aligns with just trying to get there. I often think of how quickly we can get to places that 100 years ago would have been "a journey" verses a trip... we are indeed more "efficient", but maybe not any happier.

Planning for growth

Paumgarten goes into the concept planners use to work with communities, the "triangle" that planners imagine where points are 1. where you sleep 2. where you work and 3. where you shop. It is like a larger "kitchen triangle" with a cooking point, a sink and a refrigerator point and the goal is to have short sides to traverse for easy and efficient activity. Of course it is a lot easier when designing a kitchen with a small number of family members than to design an ideal community with many participants including working people, mothers with children, visitors and service traffic.

If you have ever attended a meeting hosted by a developer in the beginning stages of the "community outreach" segment of the project, you might have noticed a significant lack of what civil planners would refer to as the "big picture". This is due to the focused nature of development around metro areas. It is only when the community chimes in on how the development plan will affect the community and their lifestyle that the development planners start to see the project from another point of view.

Each development project once approved and built adds to the complexity of the community dynamic and of course to commuting traffic woes (or not). Development for residential housing is not bad, it does require a "big picture" view however, to assure that the new commuters added to the existing traffic flow won't ruin it for everyone.

For those of us living in outlying communities like the Arts Village of Tubac Arizona, we are not looking for a change back to what we escaped from. I think we are all hoping the wonderful picture won't change too soon.