![\"Compact](\"https:\/\/dc.streetsblog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/smart-growth-288x300.jpg\" "\\"smart")
<\/a><\/p>\nCompact urbanism can work in the suburbs, like Bethesda, Maryland. Image: Maryland Sierra Club<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGrowing Wealthier: Smart Growth, Climate Change, and Prosperity<\/a>\u201d starts with the simple assertion that accessibility \u2013 \u201cbringing origins and destinations closer together\u201d \u2013 is, after all, \u201cthe very reason that cities exist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to have your choices nearby so you can meet your daily needs as efficiently as possible,\u201d said report author Steve Winkelman.<\/p>\n By separating residential areas, commercial services, and places of employment, suburban planning requires that people travel long distances to meet their needs. All those miles used to be viewed as a measure of economic progress.<\/p>\n \u201c[Vehicle Miles Traveled] and GDP have grown concurrently since World War II and in lock step for much of that time,\u201d the report states. But around 1996, GDP began growing faster than VMT, and, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, \u201cthe importance of travel as a component of the U.S. economy has been declining since the early 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, CCAP\u2019s research shows that states with lower VMT per capita tend to have higher GDP per capita.<\/p>\n Excessive travel is more likely to be an economic detriment than a benefit. Ironically, GDP counts as economic productivity many of the counterproductive aspects of motorized travel, such as fuel consumed waiting in traffic jams, oil spills, vehicle repairs and medical treatment resulting from collisions, costs of air pollution, and defense operations to protect U.S. petroleum interests around the world. In fact, many costs of sprawling land use patterns (particularly increased infrastructure) themselves boost GDP figures.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The authors also urge us to distinguish between economically productive travel and what they call \u201cempty miles.\u201d It\u2019s like differentiating between empty calories and nutrition.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cA lot of driving that most people are doing nowadays is not helping them economically,\u201d said report author Chuck Kooshian. \u201cAlthough the VMT has been going up per capita, as we\u2019re making trips to the grocery store five miles to get some milk, and we\u2019re taking the kids out driving to go trick-or-treating, and driving to the park to walk our dog, this is not helping the average household economically. It might be helping the Saudis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n