Suburbs Are More Dangerous Than City Centers

By Dom Nozzi

Contrary to conventional wisdom, recent studies have found that it is statistically safer to live in city centers than the suburbs.

Why?

Because a person is way more likely to be injured or killed in a suburban car crash than to be  injured or killed in a town center. Since people drive a lot more in the suburbs, their chances of injury or death are therefore a LOT higher in the ‘burbs.

This is according to studies by William Lucy, professor of Urban and Environmental Studies at the University of Virginia. See this report, for example.

I’m actually thankful that I was raised in the sprawling suburbs in Penfield, because it led me to discover how sterile, boring, and dependent-on-others life can be for people who live out there. Unless you can drive a car and find a lot of entertainment in sitting alone inside a small metal box all day, much of life in the ‘burbs is screaming misery. The result is that I’ve grown up to write a book and work as a planner to do what I can to alert people to the horrible consequences — particularly for kids and seniors — of living in sprawlsville suburbs.

In sum, to live a full, rich, pleasant, safe, car-free, independent life, one needs to live in-town.