What Is the Anti-Density Crowd Really Afraid Of?

Yesterday, we mentioned that some people in Washington, DC, are up in arms over a zoning rule designed to let more people move in to some residential areas. Linda Schmitt, leader of a group that goes by the name "Neighbors for Neighborhoods," is organizing against a measure that would allow people to live in existing buildings in alleyways. It was a curious complaint, because, as David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington noted, what they were all worked up over amounted to a few "cute, clean little brick house[s]."

Cap'n Transit today attempts to determine what people are really upset about when they get upset about new neighbors. More than anything, he says, what's at the heart of the complaints is not really "density," but space for cars:

Elsewhere on the Network today: Walkable Dallas Fort Worth looks at the U.S. cities with the highest drunk driving rates and finds they share a similar development pattern. Kaid Benfield at NRDC's Switchboard blog reports that sprawl could consume 34 million acres of forest by 2060 if current trends continue. And City Block says Zipcar and other car sharing services, including long-term rentals, fall somewhere on a spectrum between car ownership and taxi use.