PREDICTIONS 05.01.08

In five years, thanks to the soaring price of gasoline, the demand for public transportation will be three times what it is now, leaving most urban bus lines badly overcrowded and struggling to keep up with demand. It will also become increasingly common for people to look for housing within a short walk or bike ride from their job, and many suburbs will begin to turn into ghost towns as a result, with others becoming a sort of enclave of suburbanites who all work at nearby companies. Many businesses will try to entice new employees by demonstrating that there is a wealth of affordable housing nearby. Other businesses will relocate to the cities, and formerly abandoned downtowns will becomes thriving communal centers. The poor, in the meanwhile, will be pushed out by rising housing prices, and will sometimes need to travel 10 miles or more to get to work; for some poor people, transportation will cost 30 percent of their income.