Originally Posted by phoebeisis

Achtung!! Lots of tourist DESPITE the almost day long air time-
yeah nice beaches ,but I bet the Germans were fascinated by Australia too.
Crocs-in swimming areas-geez aren't the sharks jellyfish poison octopus,"yellow belly sea snake" enough!!
Dingos- bigger than I thought- 35 lbs-sturdy looking

Roody- very pretty-not what Michigan brings to mind. Is that what you folks call "The upper Peninsula"
How cold is the water in summer --lake michigan- very pretty.
DOUBLE YIKES- checked an atlas-Michigan borders ALL the great lakes but Ontario-all cold(swimming wise) in summer??

On to original theme-Why no sprawl there?? Meaning long line of strip malls gas stations with subdivisions along some main road out of some main city?
Australia-no sprawl because(my guesses most stolen from Machka, but with my take on what was most important-so..)
1)Gas was relatively(to average income) more expensive-post war-than in USA
2)Cars were " same same
3) Cultural-they were Brits much longer than we were-so they mimicked GB-heck Machka says they bought Brit cars-despite Brit cars being pretty expensive(but our cars GOT HUGE gas guzzlers
4)Some geography limitations-hemmed in by mountains-and interior HOT DRY


Roody-So WHY no sprawl in those pretty beach areas-too damn cold and commute to make a living too far??? FLA- lots of pretty beaches-lots of sprawl-BUT WARM NO SNOW so people want to live there.(notice Germans fly all the way to Australia for warm pretty beaches-and all the "DIFFERENT THERE"- hell of a flight considering the MED is sooo close.)-
No City= No Sprawl The linear development almost always is along a main road out of the city-connecting cities-
Heck pre cars-cities always expanded along main roads streets-land was cheaper
Cheap cars and cheap gas cheap land made linear development "practical"

Maybe someone could find a study-comparing annual snow fall to "sprawl"

We are pretty much arguing about "how to locate the shopping doctors vets dentists hospitals perhaps even manufacturing restaurants bakeries gas stations"
Concentrate in the middle surrounded by "living places"
Along a road/street with living areas on either side-meaning average distance from Living area to shops is farther-

But BIG THINGS- Manufacturing where do they go?? They are LARGE need BIG TRANSPORTATION roads rail ship-

Roody-Michigan- exactly where did Ford put those BIG AUTO PLANTS originally??


PS Australia still more interesting than SPRAWL.Apparently Europeans-Germans-also were/are fascinated by Australia

PPS Cheap gas cheap reliable cars cheap land cheap good roads linear development makes "sense"
Folks in cities like NYNY walk or ride extremely expensive to build public transportation which needs HIGH ridership( huge and dense population) to afford-NYNY
NOLA once had GREAT public transportation-but our population was BIGGER and NOLA had more $$-we once were the MAIN CITY in the south-
We were the BIG EASY because it was easy to make a decent living-educated or not-usually not.THE PORT of course..

It might be interesting to look at the association between Big PORT CITIES and good public transportation.
Maybe ports are the only cities that can afford it?? Guessing Interstates and Rail hubs could be "ports"